[kictanet] Music Piracy in Kenya - Government can Help

Fri Sep 28 02:53:32 EAT 2012

Copyright law is complicated but there are some basics (if we have any
lawyers here that are good at this maybe they can advise us).

Someone somewhere (and might not even be Eric Wainaina) had to get
permission from Eric Wainana and all the other parties involved in EACH of
the song (I haven't seen his album really) before they could put any song on
a CD for sale. I suspect that Eric has a Publisher who did this and the
publisher gets money for each CD sold (unless other arrangements have been
made. Remember for Eric to allow his music to be "duplicated" into CDs, he
was told how many so he licensed that number.

Now when it comes to digital, everytime you download a song, you have
actualy made a COPY of that song! So someone needs to authorize you to offer
COPYING of music.

Whether at PewaHewa its legal or not depends on the agreements they have
with the person they got the music from. If you go and find the artist whose
voice you hear in a song and sign a contract with that person without
confirming they have permission to offer the OTHER rights in a song, then
your contract would ideally be invalid.

A little research a while back showed me pewahewa was working with MCSK. My
research shows most of the content at MCSK has not been signed by all
parties! Make the conclusion on that on your own!

Let me illustrate this abit further:

You and your brother own a goat at 50/50. Your brother is also a member of a
society that sells goats called (lets call it GCSK J ). One morning your
brother goes to GCSK and tells them he has a goat and they tell him, we can
sell the goat. They take the goat and sell it. You return home and your
brother tells you BTW, I sold the goat..and he tells you.I was paid my 50%
and directs you to go to GCSK to get your money. At GCSK, they tell you, if
you are not a member we can't pay you! Further, they tell you, after 3 yrs
any money we collect that belongs to non-members "evaporates" - well not in
those words exactly!

That my brothers and sisters is what is happening at MCSK - at least with
content that's owned by me partly.

Regards

From: kictanet
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+bkioko=bernsoft.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf
Of Tony Likhanga
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2012 5:26 AM
To: bkioko at bernsoft.com
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Music Piracy in Kenya - Government can Help

Thanks for the insight Ben.

If I looked at the license model from a very simplistic angle, would I, the
consumer, be making wrong assumptions  (especially in light of the local
market) if I were to use the price tag on the music as a pointer to the
legality of the product?

To illustrate this I'll use Eric Wainaina's music album on PewaHewa. The
album has 14 tracks each priced at Kes 30.

Price tag on the original sealed CD copy of the music from Nakumatt
Supermarket = Kes 399.00
Price tag on the same Music bought from PewaHewa (Ignoring transaction
costs) = Kes 30 x 14 = Kes 420.00

Am I misguided to conclude that I would be buying a legitimate copy of the
Album from an online source on the basis of this simplistic analysis? If
yes, then are there any controls that can be enforced on the online music
vendors who are likely exploit this approach.

Tony.

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