Uganda Sued for Pirating its National Anthem
Written by Ernesto on September 22, 2008The Ugandan government has been sued by the 83 year old composer of its national anthem “Oh Uganda, Land of Beauty.” Prof. George Wilberforce Kakoma seeks compensation for the continuous infringement of his work on national festivities, for which he received no royalties.
Uganda, a former British colony in east Africa became an independent nation in 1962. Since it had no official anthem, a committee was appointed to select one, and Kakoma’s song – that took a day to compose – was eventually picked as the winner.
At the time, Kakoma received a few dollars for his contribution, but he was never commissioned by the government. Now, 45 years later, the prof. is hoping to get paid for his work after all. According to his lawyers, Kokoma is entitled to be compensated based on section 4 and 9 of the Copyright Act of 1964.
The case will appear before court in two weeks, where it will decide on the future of the Ugandan anthem. It is uncertain if Kakoma will also go after the BBC, since they have been hosting a version of the song on their website for quite a while now.
Kakoma, currently residing in the US for medical treatment, has not yet commented on the lawsuit, but his lawyers said that they wont call for a temporary injunction on playing the song on national events.
To quote from the anthem: “Oh Uganda! the land of freedom…”
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43 Responses
Yeah you better get that money while you can old man..
Because we all know you can take it with you..
Way to ruin any respect anyone had for you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APJyTUYLA94
Material things! Apparently we need them.
Another fine example to show how far copyright has gone from its conception and purpose…
Sad.
>LOLLOLOL
there cant be weirder copyright news then this one. even if all media companies would instantly stop hunting torrent sites. ffs, man sued his country over national anthem. i just cant think of anything more offsync with normal brain.
I bet he needs the money for some operation or something!
This is Mental!
Ernesto is the sex =)
LoooooooooooooooooooooL
Kakoma old f**k, get the f**k out of this world.
Die in Hell – burn :)
This case presents clearly, to all those people who say that copyright is about “compensation,” that no, that copyright is not about any stupid “compensation,” but more about giving people more money than they should be getting. If they want more money, they should compose new songs, not leech off of their old ones.
Roze
http://www.28chan.org/apstdt/
LMAO ,
you couldn’t make it up
Well the way i see this one, IF he fails then it just shows u how its one rule for us and another for anyone else… Always amazing how the system “accomodates” when it suits.
They`ll find some loophole with this one.
I personally hope he gets it! It’s two fingers to the government(s). They aint gonna be happy having to payout are they!
Jebus. He did something interesting before I was born (and I’m not a young man) and he thinks he’s still entitled. Die already.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Wow.
If he was never commissioned by the government, i.e. “promised” anything, then I’m guessing he has no case. I don’t think you can sue the government for promises it didn’t make. I’m pretty sure the national anthem is Ugandan property now, isn’t it?
this website is so full of lies and it’s only purpose is to attract visitors and make them angry
nobody writes anything serious here because off all the ad-s that are infecting users
@12 PedoPhile
Get the F**k out of here jack@ss.
We Love Torrentfreak :)
And the torrent community should care about this because…?
I’m actually not all that offended by this. He probably refused almost nothing the first time around and is now looking for something else. big deal. I don’t think the BBC thing will come through but being paid well for your own initial work…why not?
In 45 years I’m gonna sue torrentfreak for not compensating me for this fine comment. You know dropping this comment is kinda my pension. It’s probably the greatest idea I ever had. I hope it’s not patented or something.
At least the money would be going to him and not a f*cking greaseball company… Except the 70% lost in lawyer fees… =^/
If I was the ruler of Uganda, I would quickly compose a new national anthem entitled “Prof. Kakoma is an asshat” to replace the old one.
The way I see it, he is entitled to some money, because he was the creator of the song. I do suspect that his reason for bringing the lawsuit about now has more to due with medical expenses that he needs to pay for. It seems reasonable for him to expect something, because he did actually make the song. If it was a 3rd party group with no actual relationship to the composition of the song (RIAA) than I would agree that it is a bad lawsuit. However, I think he probably deserves something, even if its only help in paying his medical expenses.
Goood morning sir
My name is… George Agdgdgwngo
I’d like to talk to you today about your favorite national, could you give me it’s artist and title please…?
Now could you sing the first verse for me?
—–
Copyright on a national anthem is abit over kill isn’t it? or is that just me?
with number 10. Spot on mate. I hope he wins too.
Personally I think he should have the money he deserves it its his work.
Its properly better then most of this crap that they are making at the moment. Which isnt too hard
If he made the anthem and now needs medical procedures, the government should help him out with that.
You might get Ugandan nickels thrown at you. You never know.
Hey 497093 (Ped)
1) Nice nick. I fits nice too. Too bad it’ll make the crawlers in Virginia take unnecessary notice. (Note to mods: You might want to ammend his nick for that reason.)
2)Somehow you have slain our mighty TF dragon with your incredibly efficient technique of magnanimous wordsmithery. Kudos.
3)I write serious stuff here. Do you?
“I fits nice too.”
should have read “IT fits nice too.”
Too bad Uganda doesn’t look like they have assassins.
piracy is an evil which destroys creativity! pirates who distribute copyright content without owning the distribution rights are criminals. people who use the content are thieves
please report the Ugandan Government for criminal conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and the population of Uganda for stealing the song:
cdreward@riaa.com
http://www.riaa.com/issues/piracy/report.asp
*wibble*
technically, cant the government just tell him to take a hike…
Let’s see…
- Why are there so many comments say he should die
- It’s on torrentfreak cause it’s a current copyright case
- This site only has a couple of adds
- Piracy is not kill creativity
Copyright isn’t usually an issue with national anthems cause they use old songs, this song is only 45 years old.
Not sure what he should get, but it’d depend on why he’s brung this up now…
If i were the Uganda gov, i would send this letter to Kakuma:
Dear prof. STFU. If you ever step in Uganda again, you will be detained and executed for high treason.
Yours truly, NOT!
@ 10 “They aint gonna be happy having to payout are they!”
They won’t care how much they have to pay, where is that money coming from? Either the population pays for it or they just print some more, and drop the value of it at the same time, which causes all sort of fun for the population (again).
Voici la liste des pays par population. Les données sont tirées du CIA World Factbook millésime 2008. Sauf exceptions annotées les données correspondent
http://www.artikel32.com/deutsch/deutsch_d.php
Good on him! It might not be my govenment he’s sueing, but it is still a branch of “THE MAN”! Fuck da man, SUE EVERYONE!!!!
Clearly this guy didn’t care before or he would have not waited so long.. but now with the medical bills coming in, I guess he is looking for the cash to keep his treatment going.
I agree that if the money is indeed needed to help the dude with medical bills to stay alive, then the gov’t should at least pay his med bills so he doesn’t die.
They SHOULD have been helping before because, as writer of the National Anthem, he’s probably technically a national icon or something.
@5
I’m with you. If they say he’s in the states for medical treatment. They probably found something that it’s gonna cost him a lot of money and he just doesn’t have the means to cover the expenses.
It’s still kind of weird…
lol
am ugandan and can tell you,people dont agree with this;
i guess you could say we arent too big on copyrights not having a working law till this year
Didn’t he willingly contributed to his country? How is that a copyright infringement?
I have to agree with number 10 on this. There very much is a “one rule for us, one rule for them” ideology that’s becoming more and more prominent on the world stage.
In the US the government can violate copyright and be protected by what’s called “Sovereign Immunity” (i.e., the governing body cannot be guilty of committing a crime and so cannot be held civilly or criminally liable). So when the US Air Force wants to hack equipment they’ve leased for their planes and reverse engineer it so as to avoid paying the creators, they can do so without any sort of legal repercussion. YET, the government can go on record as stating that the CITIZENS living under the jurisdiction of US law who engage in music and video downloading are breaking the law (It’s even turned to bullying other countries that do not wish to comply with their heavy-handed anti-piracy policies).
But, if a country is guilty of copyright infringement, why should they get a free pass? How is their “Crime” any better than the crimes they purport we are committing. If anything their infringement is doing greater harm. When the US government decides to engage in copyright or patent infringement who gets hurt? The creators, who actually rely on money received by the government for purchasing the product to subsist. I’m inclined to agree with the posters above me, this man most likely needs the money, since he obviously has health concerns (which the Ugandan government obviously cares nothing about).
Yet who REALLY gets hurt when someone downloads an mp3 or avi. No one. Well except for the Studio Head who may have to buy a Rolex that’s 500 dollars cheaper (OMG, noooo!!!).
People ask, “Why should this concern us?” If you’re not worried by things such as this you should be. Right now, globally, our rights are being violated by corporate greed, not just p2p filesharers, but the artists and originators of the works being downloaded who are getting ripped off by movie studios and record companies daily (The REAL Pirates).
As well, a government should never have greater freedoms and less accountability than the people they govern. Seriously, I hope this guy wins. If any government wants to view copyright infringement as illegal, then they should be held to the same standards they tyrannically impose on the rest of us. When governments stop being held accountable, then we have a lot more to worry about than going to jail for uploading movies.
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