The popular pirated movie industry is on its deathbed after the United States demanded that Kenya cracks down on the trade as part of the free trade agreement that President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration has been negotiating with the global superpower.
The United States wants Kenyan authorities to institute tougher copyright laws in a bid to significantly change the technology and entertainment industries in East Africa’s largest economy.
This is part of the bargaining objectives in the Kenya-US trade talks that call for Kenya's dedication ahead of the bilateral deal signing.
Entertainment giants including Netflix, Walt Disney Studios, Universal City Studios and Warner Brothers, have stated that Kenya must revamp copyright legislation by instituting tougher penalties for both individuals and corporates aiding copyright violations, in a letter to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
They made the demands through the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) lobby group which is a merger of five that’s is Association of American Publishers, Entertainment Software Association, Independent Film and Television Alliance, Motion Picture Association and Recording Industry Association of America.
IIPA highlighted that Kenya's copyright legal and enforcement framework remains deficient, and piracy particularly online has been a major barrier for the creative industries in Kenya.
They expect Kenya to enforce the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Internet Treaties. These include creating effective legal protection for technical measures such as digital locks used by streaming companies like Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV and Hulu to block unwarranted access to their content.
Additionally, Kenyan authorities are required to incorporate secondary liability principles by holding service providers accountable for infringements carried out by third parties on their services.
Secondary liability creates legal incentives for service providers to cooperate with copyright owners to address online infringement,” said IIPA.
This was sighted in light of the suit against Safaricom and Jamii Telecom Ltd for copyright infringement under the secondary liability principle by Pay-TV service provider.
The pirating movie business employs thousands of Kenyans with numerous shops being opened in urban areas. The rural areas mainly rely on pirated copies that feature translations or exaggerated narrations in vernacular languages.
