Kenya Hotel and Pub Owners Boycott Copyright Music Tariff

Copyright music pubs

Owners of hotels, restaurants and pubs (users) are at loggerhead with the Collective Management Organisation over their usage of copyrighted music and drama works which began with a public notice issued to them.

Kenya Association of Music Producers (KAMP), Performers Rights Society Of Kenya (PRISK) Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) licensed as Collective Management Organisation according to Section 46 of The Copyright Act  through the gazette notice were mentioned as the issuers of the joint copyright license to the users

In the joint licensing operation, the CMOs are to use a joint collection tariff approved by the Attorney General and in calculating or assessing joint license fee payable to the in the exploitation of broadcast communication to the public performance and public places by the users.

Users are entitled to receive an annual joint invoice from the CMOs payable annually within thirty days of issue failure to which they will be slapped with a 5% non-compliance penalty compounded annually of the payable penalty who. The notice went ahead to advised them to make the payments through the party MPesa, cheque, and direct credit into their provided joint account.

But the Kenya Association of Hotel Keepers and Caterers (KAHC) and Pubs Entertainment and Restaurants Association of Kenya (PERAK) are not abiding by a set of regulation, that was put in place without their consent.

“We write to update you on the status and progress of the copyright matters. Since our previous communication, the Collective Management Organization (CMO)received a new ruling requiring hotels, bars restaurants and other related businesses to pay 50% of the gazette tariff. You will recall, that we objected the gazette tariff before publishing because it did not take into account the principles of equity and, proportionality and convenience, that we have been advocating for as an industry,” read a section of the notice PERAK

Responding to the matter Renown Music Producer Ted Josiah, pointed out that or the many decades he has been in the music industry, he has never received a  penny from the CMOs, raising the question on their true motives.

Users have been advised to abide by the notice to cease and desist usage of local music and not settle for any invoices that they may be presented by CMOs who’ve have been making rounds demanding the 50% dispute tariff raiding some properties and in extreme cases taking away music instruments.