Jamaican singer wins Ugandan copyright case

Justice Patricia Mutesi made the ruling on 21 August in a case that pitted the artist against Ugandan telco Airtel and two premium rate service providers, OnMobile Global and MTech Communications – listed as first, second and third defendants, respectively.

In the lawsuit filed in 2015 at the High Court in Kampala, Konshens accused the three companies of unlawfully providing eight of his songs as caller tunes under the Hello Tunes service run by Airtel Uganda at Ush600 per download.

Konshens contended that the defendants infringed on his intellectual property and refused to account for the proceeds or pay him royalties from the songs’ usage.

The artist proved that he is the author and composer of the songs in question, including ‘Simple Song’, ‘Gyal A Bubble’ and ‘A So Mi Tan’, and that he never assigned or divested the songs’ rights to the defendants.

“The plaintiff is therefore seeking for declarations that the defendants’ sale of his songs as caller tunes without his consent and without passing to him the proceeds thereof amounted to infringement of his copyright and unjust enrichment,” a court statement reads. The artist also sought a costs order as well as general and exemplary damages.

In its defence, Airtel Uganda denied that it infringed on Konshens’ copyrights, arguing that it had signed a caller ring back tone (CRBT) services agreement with OnMobile Global. It said that under the agreement, it only provided OnMobile Global with access to its mobile network and customers, but the caller tunes were obtained and distributed by OnMobile Global through its own systems.

OnMobile Global also denied that it had infringed on Konshens’ copyrights, saying that it had entered into content provider agreements with MTech Communications to provide digital artistic works to its clients. MTech Communications, meanwhile, said it had an agreement with OnMobile Global to provide caller tunes to Airtel and only supplied OnMobile Global with licensed works from its content catalogue, which did not contain any of the plaintiff’s songs.

Justice Mutesi found Airtel Uganda and OnMobile Global guilty of copyright infringement and acquitted MTech Communications.

“The first defendant gave the second defendant access to its mobile network system for the purpose of enabling it to distribute the suit songs to Airtel subscribers,” she said. “It published on its website an advertisement inviting its customers to subscribe for the songs as caller tunes, with instructions on how to purchase and download them. It is clear that the first defendant’s actions enabled and facilitated the second defendant to distribute or sell the suit works through its Airtel network and to its subscribers. The first defendant also financially benefited from the said distribution.”

Mutemi awarded 15% interest on the $180 000 per annum from the date that the suit was filed. She also ordered Airtel Uganda and OnMobile Global to pay the artist Ush20m and Ush30m, respectively, as exemplary damages for copyright infringement.