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KECOBO terms against using borrowed work


The Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) has advised social media users to refrain from not acknowledging authors for their work shared on the internet.

Via a statement, KECOBO explained that mentioning that the video or picture as “courtesy” is not enough.

This they say is an infringement of the authors rights under the Copyright law.

“Our attention has been drawn to the widespread usage of photographs, videos, illustrations and books from third parties in social media without sufficient acknowledgement amidst protest by the copyright owners,” executive director KECOBO Edward Sigei said.

“Under Copyright law, authors of a copyright work have the right to be adequately acknowledged when portions of their works are used within fair dealing due to moral rights requirements. Take note that the widely used term ‘courtesy’ is not an acknowledgement,” he said.

An acknowledgement, KECOBO says, must show clearly the name of the author and in some instances the name of the work if relevant. The author’s social media account may also be added.

In the case of books, all contributors to a copyright work including illustrators of books and other graphic material, should be clearly and sufficiently acknowledged regardless of the terms of engagement as they hold moral rights.

“Graphic artists are advised to always show a link to their work by embedding a digital signature or other unique mark,” Mr Sigei said.

Last year KECOBO cracked the whip on three music collective management organisations (CMOs) following a dispute on the distribution of Sh114 million to artistes and non-compliance with licensing conditions.

The three CMOs include the Kenya Association of Music Producers (Kamp), Performers Rights Society of Kenya (Prisk) and Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK).

KECOBO claimed that there was a breach of administrative cost limits that also included the diversion of royalties into an undeclared bank account whose operations are not monitored.