Kenya lobby group lauds move to withdraw copyright amendment bill

Kenya’s Copyright Act safeguards against unauthorised access to and use of creative work, with takedown notices among the key tools employed to enforce copyright protections for rights owners and distributors.

On 15 February, the country’s parliamentary Committee on Communication, Information and Innovation heard memoranda submitted by various stakeholders about the latest amendment bill, including from PAP, which is protesting the proposed repeal of sections 35B, 35C and 35D and warning of adverse impact on the creative sector.

Last week, the bill passed its second reading, despite widespread condemnation from creative organisations, sports bodies and the International Publishers Association, with many fearing its adoption at the third reading this week.

But Homa Bay County woman representative Gladys Wanga, who sponsored the bill, has assured content creators that the amendments in question, which sceptics say will enable content piracy, will be withdrawn.

The legislator had previously contended that the changes in the amendment bill, which followed deliberations with former prime minister Raila Odinga, would provide a fair framework for distributing revenue from ringback tunes between telcos and copyright holders.

“As soon as we go to the floor in the third reading, all those amendments will be dropped,” Wanga said. “This house is not about taking away the gains that we have made in protecting our content creators from piracy.”

She reiterated that the amendments sought to “support and make sure our artists and content creators are protected, but not to take away those very rights in this bill.”

Reacting to the development, PAP convener and PHAT! Music & Entertainment founder Mike Strano said: “We can now move forward with the implementation of sections 35B, 35C & 35D, which will be transformational for Kenya’s creative industry and a model for Africa. In fact, PAP has spent the last two years co-creating a framework with the Technology Service Providers of Kenya, where the ISPs are members, via a memorandum of understanding [MoU]. We hope that the MoU can be signed immediately so that creatives can cooperate with the ISPs against piracy for mutual benefit.”