James 

 

Maybe it was not too much of a high horse than failing to understand that their 
needs to be a starting point in not only creating IPR and copyright but also in 
sensitizing the whole issue with the masses.   My main point on the copyright 
as per artists are concerned is that traditionally way back when these laws 
took ground not everybody could copy someones recording so it was easy to 
enforce and also track down who made a copy of someones music .  

 

Today even my 10 year old daughter can make copys of music to put on her ipod 
and even make copies for her friends.  Copyright in its traditional mode and 
the mode the TIM is looking at is no longer a relevant law.

 

So let me throw something in the air here for discussion.  The radios and all 
Telecom companies are regulated by governments around the world.  Both radio 
and internet have become the most popular vehicles for copyright infringement.  
 Since government collects allot of taxes from both broadcast and internet 
providers maybe it’s time some method to have royalties paid through this 
process is explored.  The distribution among artists could then happen based on 
the airplay their content gets.

 

This could help balance the playing field but would need some clever 
implementation.

 

regards

 

 

From: Wire James [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Monday, August 09, 2010 3:20 PM
To: Linux Users Group Uganda
Subject: Re: [LUG] Experiment on Content (Yesterday's radio)

 

Tim


Get off your high horse. While many of us may be concerned about the rights of 
copyright holders, the situation not only in Uganda but many other African 
Countries outside South Africa is similar. Many times members on this list who 
are in business can vouch for this, people have come up with proposals, ideas, 
innovations e.t.c and they are 'stolen' from them unashamedly and in most 
instances by corporates that originate from the so called purist countries you 
are trying to talk about. I recall a very famous case of one Lugger whose 
company tussled it out with a giant over infringement of copyright on some 
software. This big company thought it would frustrate the guy through the court 
process but luckily enough, he was able to push on till the big elephant sought 
an out of court settlement. However, how many people have been lucky enough to 
achieve such justice here in Uganda? Few, very few. That is why you find the 
laissez faire attitude among the list members because we have more pressing 
problems and needs than pretending that copyright will change our lives. Many 
times we submit proposals for jobs and they are 'copy n pasted' by competitors 
who have insiders in the organisations we are approaching. It is a dog eat dog 
world for now and I will unashamedly tell you that as for now, copyright issues 
are at the bottom of our list of problems to think about. I would rather see 
Badru's project go on if its aim has a more positive impact on this nation 
eventually than guarding worthless songs that have nothing to copyright about. 
Many of these musicians would not even earn a dime if copyright was to be 
observed to the letter in this country. I remember 4 years ago a musician I 
helped to get paid US$ 1500 for a 3 hour show all because I came across his 
music on a website that he even didnt know about. Like someone said, it is a 
skewed market. Just understand it the way it is.

Wire


On Mon, 2010-08-09 at 14:26 +0300, Tim Schofield wrote: 

 
On 09/08/2010, Joseph Abdi <[email protected]> wrote:
> Tim,
> 
>  It's because 90% of the list members have not faced copy-right issues ..
>  Also, since almost 90% of our website materials in Uganda don't use
> original materials one does not
>  yet see the need or importance of copy-right ...
> 
>  And again, remember this is a LUG list (Open-Source) where FREE, COPY,
> RE-USE
>  is Legal ...with the OS mentality and mind-set, you can hardly have support
> or understanding of it here ..
 
No no no no. Open source is only about free re-use if you keep within
the narrow confines of the license that the software is issued under,
for example the GPL. It in no way condones the abuse of copyright.
Copyright is at the very heart of the GPL. Anyone on this list who is
using a kernel more recent than 2.6.13 is using some of my copyrighted
code which I allow them to do providing they stick to the letter of
the license that the code is released under (GPL v2.0).
 
Every open source developer, and those who benefit from the use of
open source should be active in the protection of the rights of
copyright holders. I have spoken at LUG meetings around the world, and
never before found a group who consider that copyright holders rights
should be abused.
 
You clearly believe the rest of the world will throw off its
fluffiness and join Uganda in this. Trust me you will be disappointed.
 
 
> 
 
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