New copyright amendments: A complete timeline

Since then, copyright has become more political than many artists have ever thought, and no one made matters worse than Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, when he became a face of Uganda’s Opposition. An artist before politics, Bobi Wine joined the house at a heated time, with a motion tabled to amend the Constitution, especially article 102b. Article 102(b) of the Uganda Constitution set age limits for presidential candidates, specifying that a person had to be between 35 and 75 years of age to be eligible for election as President. This article had been a subject of debate and proposed amendments, particularly concerning the upper age limit. When Bobi Wine joined Parliament, this was one of the uphill tasks he dealt with and later, his term was cut short with a pandemic. By the time the country was gearing up for the 2021 elections, the music industry had been partitioned by the Opposition and the government.

With very little to promise an industry that very few understand, copyright became a promise by both Bobi Wine who stood as a presidential candidate for the National Unity Platform and the National Resistance Movement’s Kaguta Museveni. Most of the artists supporting the regime continuously taunted Bobi Wine for being in Parliament for at least one term but never bringing up the issues of copyright. Between Bobi Wine’s turn as a politician in 2017 until he stood for presidency in 2021, copyright became the cheese used to get the attention of artists and it worked every time; artists formed associations and different groups which kept making the trip to Gulu to talk about many things but main on the agenda, copyright. Since artists had finally received the attention of the President, belief was that a copyright law that is effective was in the offing. On his part, after the elections, a legislator, Hillary Kiyaga from Bobi Wine’s party was granted parliamentary leave to introduce the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights (Amendment) Bill, 2022.

Kiyaga sought leave of the House during a plenary sitting chaired by Speaker Anita Among. He revealed that the current Copyright and Neighbouring Act does not grant due benefits to originators of works, an anomaly that his new Bill seeks to cure. “As an artist, I know you are fed up seeing musicians on the streets as beggars; it is because their works are not protected. It is, therefore, the duty of this House to protect their works”, said Kiyaga, famously known as Dr Hilderman. In April 2024, the Committee on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) unveiled a report addressing the petition submitted by the Uganda National Musicians Federation (UNMF) through Ms Phiona Nyamutoro on October 4, 2023. Why Kenzo’s federation chose to submit the report through a youth MP when there was already another MP, Kiyaga who is also an artist and was seeking to amend the same law to achieve the same results, was something baffling.

But of course, this highlights how copyright has in the past years been more of a political tool or slogan either artists or politicians have constantly used to get the attention of the industry. Between 2023 and mid 2024, there was a power struggle between different entities of artists, with each trying to prove that they were more relevant than the other. For instance, there was UMA, whose botched presidential election had made a lot of news. At the apex, there was the National Cultural Forum (NCF) whose role is not very different from the Uganda National Cultural Centre (UNCC). Very few people usually articulate what the National Cultural Forum really does or their mandate without it sounding like a duplication of the UNCC had the centre decided to operate as a commission rather than a centre. Within NCF, UMA, UNMF, the National Unity Platform through Hillary Kiyaga and NRM’s Rachel Magoola, copyright amendments have been big on almost every front’s agenda.

After various meetings and different photo opportunities, some things kept being promised, however, as Uganda heads into the next general elections, a lot has been taking place this year already. At the beginning of March, President Yoweri Museveni approved the operationalisation of Uganda’s new copyright management system, a groundbreaking initiative designed to strengthen intellectual property rights and provide better protection for creatives. The announcement was made on Friday, February 28, 2025, during a meeting in Rwakitura attended by Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa; Minister of State for Gender and Culture, Ms Peace Mutuuzo; and a delegation of musicians led by Eddy Kenzo, senior presidential advisor for creatives and president of the UNMF. Much as the system was hailed as a breakthrough by artists, it was not viable since it heavily requires the use of electricity and internet, in a country where internet penetration is low.

None of the suggested actions from the copyright management systems has been implemented. The process would see musicians register their works with the system and the system would in turn follow up these works whenever they are used in bars, TV stations and radios across the country. Much as it looked like a brilliant idea, there were many loopholes. Finally, this month, the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Mr Nobert Moa, presented the long awaited Copyright and Neighbouring Amendment Bill 2025 for its first reading in Parliament. Once the amendments have been effected, this is meant to affect the creative industry in many ways but above it all, tighten few things that the current copyright law has not addressed. At the moment, creatives have a lot of hopes in the amendments, although until everything is effected and passed, they can only hope for the best, like they have always done.