Examination of the Legal Framework Against Online Piracy in Uganda

The digital revolution has transformed the creation and distribution of creative works, and with it the ease and scale of their unauthorised exploitation. Online piracy, the unauthorised reproduction, distribution and communication of copyright-protected works over digital networks, threatens the livelihoods of Uganda's musicians, film-makers, authors and software developers and the growth of its creative industries. This article examines the legal framework against online piracy in Uganda. It sets out the concepts of copyright, neighbouring rights and online piracy and the features of the digital environment that make piracy so difficult to control; it examines the domestic framework, comprising the Constitution, the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act Cap 222, the Computer Misuse Act Cap 96, the Electronic Transactions Act Cap 99 and the Data Protection and Privacy Act Cap 97, and the international framework of the Berne Convention, the TRIPS Agreement, the WIPO Internet Treaties and the Budapest Convention; and it analyses enforcement and its treatment by the courts through decisions including Angella Katatumba v Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda and Uganda Performing Right Society v MTN, together with the comparative authority of Napster, Grokster and the Newzbin2 case. The article argues that, although Uganda has a substantially sound legal framework, that framework predates the maturation of online piracy, addresses the digital environment and the position of online intermediaries only imperfectly, and is undermined by weak enforcement, and it recommends the modernisation of the Copyright Act, a defined regime for intermediary liability and website blocking, stronger enforcement capacity, and accession to the digital-agenda treaties.