A lot has been written about copyright reform in the US, UK and other big western markets recently – largely focused on how these laws should be updated for the AI era.
However, elsewhere in the world reform can still mean setting up the basics of protecting the rights of musicians, authors, filmmakers and other creators.
Such is the case in Uganda, whose parliament has recently passed the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights (Amendment) Bill.
Its stated intent is to “make Uganda’s copyright law match important international copyright agreements… to modernize copyright law and make it fit today’s digital world”.
News site NilePost has more analysis of the bill, including minister Norbert Mao’s promise that it will “provide stronger protection for creators, streamline the sector and introduce tougher penalties for piracy and copyright infringement”.
There’s also a very entertaining soundbite from distributor UgaTunes’ team leader Shadrack Kisame, talking about the need for Uganda’s music industry to be more organised.
“Some of the artistes you look up to, like in Nigeria, the USA and others, are often high on weed and may never attend meetings, yet because they have an ecosystem and learned people running their organisation, things work,” he told NilePost. “Let’s not limit the organisation of the industry to just artistes.”
