Cabinet okays copyright law amendment Bill

A recent cabinet meeting chaired by President Yoweri Museveni agreed to the proposed amendments of the Ugandan copyright law.

The news of the development was announced by the Minister for Information and National Guidance, Dr. Chris Baryomunsi, at a press conference held at the Uganda Media Centre on Friday, June 28, 2024.

He said members of the Cabinet agreed that Parliament makes amendments to the copyright law, which is still under Parliament scrutiny.

"Cabinet has agreed to the amendments of the Bill and this is good news for artistes that have been asking the Government to help them pass the Bill for the good of their industry,” Baryomunsi said.

Recently the deputy Speaker of Parliament, Thomas Tayebwa, tasked the Attorney General, Kiryowa Kiwanuka, to table the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Bill,   blaming delays on the government side.

Early this year,the parliamentary committee on information, communication technology and national guidance presented a report on the petition by the Uganda National Musicians Federation on amendments to the Copyrights and Neighbouring Rights Act, 2006.

The report presented by the vice-chairperson of the committee, Tonny Ayoo, was in agreement with petitioners on the need to revise charges for caller ring-back tunes (CRBTs) to ensure a fairer distribution of revenue in the percentage to be retained by artistes.

The committee  also established that there were no standard formulas for determining the sharing of revenue from caller ring-back tunes and as a result, artists were being cheated.

The committee further observed that despite unfair share for artists, they were subjected to delayed or non-payment and faced challenges in directly suing telecommunication companies for payments under CRBTs because of lack of direct dealings with the operators.