Comments on: Uganda Sued for Pirating its National Anthem

By: Seriously

Seriously — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 15:02:29 +0000

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.

By: teohhanhui

teohhanhui — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 14:38:00 +0000

Didn’t he willingly contributed to his country? How is that a copyright infringement?

By: noxoug

noxoug — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:30:06 +0000

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

By: monster_mack

monster_mack — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:53:35 +0000

lol

By: rovr138

rovr138 — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 09:52:13 +0000

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…

By: Thraprod

Thraprod — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:27:11 +0000

They SHOULD have been helping before because, as writer of the National Anthem, he’s probably technically a national icon or something.

By: Thraprod

Thraprod — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 04:17:02 +0000

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.

By: LMG

LMG — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:16:09 +0000

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.

By: Trabb

Trabb — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 09:11:11 +0000

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!!!!

By: Artikel32

Artikel32 — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:37:57 +0000

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

By: Yah sure,

Yah sure, — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:29:03 +0000

@ 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).

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 04:20:04 +0000

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!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 04:01:21 +0000

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…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:56:52 +0000

technically, cant the government just tell him to take a hike…

By: h33t

h33t — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:16:28 +0000

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*

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:03:05 +0000

Too bad Uganda doesn’t look like they have assassins.

By: oneplusone

oneplusone — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:50:08 +0000

“I fits nice too.”

should have read “IT fits nice too.”

By: oneplusone

oneplusone — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:48:58 +0000

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?

By: oneplusone

oneplusone — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:43:28 +0000

You might get Ugandan nickels thrown at you. You never know.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:34:40 +0000

If he made the anthem and now needs medical procedures, the government should help him out with that.

By: I agree

I agree — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:29:11 +0000

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

By: #YLS#

#YLS# — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:28:50 +0000

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?

—–

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:25:34 +0000

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.

By: Your Mom

Your Mom — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:02:38 +0000

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.

By: Killer Tree

Killer Tree — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:42:02 +0000

At least the money would be going to him and not a f*cking greaseball company… Except the 70% lost in lawyer fees… =^/

By: The Real McKuma

The Real McKuma — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:40:14 +0000

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.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:33:59 +0000

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?

By: Wondering

Wondering — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:36:44 +0000

And the torrent community should care about this because…?

By: Mr.Afghanistan

Mr.Afghanistan — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:18:57 +0000

@12 PedoPhile

Get the F**k out of here jack@ss.

We Love Torrentfreak :)

By: PedoPhile

PedoPhile — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:07:58 +0000

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

By: Miguel

Miguel — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:45:30 +0000

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?

By: Eh

Eh — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:34:23 +0000

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Wow.

By: Church

Church — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:09:38 +0000

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.

By: L0Lz

L0Lz — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:06:33 +0000

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!

By: hibees

hibees — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:04:24 +0000

LMAO ,

you couldn’t make it up

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:42:30 +0000

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/

By: Mr.Afghanistan

Mr.Afghanistan — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:29:53 +0000

LoooooooooooooooooooooL
Kakoma old f**k, get the f**k out of this world.

Die in Hell – burn :)

By: Crammy

Crammy — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:17:08 +0000

This is Mental!

Ernesto is the sex =)

By: will

will — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:12:57 +0000

I bet he needs the money for some operation or something!

By: kidTHATthinks

kidTHATthinks — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:10:19 +0000

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.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:04:08 +0000

>LOLLOLOL

By: www.eZee.se

www.eZee.se — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:51:41 +0000

Another fine example to show how far copyright has gone from its conception and purpose…

Sad.

By: Omg..

Omg.. — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:41:53 +0000

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.