of professionalism in using their talent
and passion to make ends meet. In the
two cases presented above, the magazine
should have discussed with Amani
on their intention to use his material,
including image and quotes, in their
publicity strategy. The artist I engaged,
at the very least, should have notified me
before posting the commissioned art on
social media to promote his work.
For any young person out there engaged
in any sort of artistic work, at least notify
your client that you intend to use the
commissioned art for promotion of your
business. Over 90% of your clients will
not have an issue with it. As a matter of
fact, they will most likely offer to promote
the message on their sites as well!
In a bid to get a clearer understanding
of the issues of copyright, intellectual
property and consent in cases like the
ones presented above, I talked to a lawyer
friend based in Karen. This lawyer - his
name is Joram by the way - clarified that
legally, you can engage an artist in either
of two ways: you can commission the artist
to draw a drawing or painting for you and
pay them and you're done; or an artist
may develop a material not necessarily
for you, say a drawing of an elephant, and
you are just one of the many clients he
is targeting. In the first instant, it means
that the end product belongs to the client
who commissioned it, while in the second
instant, the product is the property of the
artist.
even before delivering to me and posted
on his social media sites promoting his
business. Someone spotted the photo,
recognized my friend, took a screenshot
and sent to her! My friend could not
understand where the image was coming
from. She told me of the case, and she
was mad that someone is using her image
to promote their business without her
consent.
I was hesitant to say I actually engaged
the said artist to do the work. As she
explained why she felt bad, she at the very
least, expected someone to tell her of their
intention to use their image to promote
their business, our mutual friend was
around. She did not see a need for alarm
as this was a young man using his talent
to make ends meet in a country where
you are likely to find death than you are
30 MAL32/19 ISSUE
to find employment.
Long story short, I had to admit that this
was commissioned artwork, which I had
paid for. As much as my admission calmed
down my friend, the whole thing opened a
long discussion on copyright, intellectual
property, and business ethics in the world
of entrepreneurship.
In summary, the discussion culminated
into the agreement that it is very okay
to use your talents and passion to make
money. In fact, it is the only sure way of
making ends meet for the youth in this
country. Even the new curriculum is big
on growing talent and not into churning
out ‘A’ material young people into a market
that is already saturated.
However, people need to show some bit
I probed Joram to expound further on the
first instance, based on the experience I
had just had. He said, “If you commission
an artist like to do a certain work, that
work belongs to you and you have the
copyright to it. The artist cannot purport
to reproduce copies because you own
copyright. He or she should seek your
consent to use that work to promote his
business.”
My heart sunk! So, my friend was right
all along? I thought of the many young
people out here who are doing similar
works as form of self-employment. Do
they understand this clearly? What if
one client decides to take legal action on
them? Wouldn’t this disillusion the artist
and many others out there? I am sure
the client would receive a lot of bashing
online, but the fact will remain that the
artist broke the law! And as we know, the
law has zero bearing of what the masses
say. It is simply the law!