I probed Joram to
expound further on
the first instance,
based on the expe-
rience 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 pur-
port to reproduce
copies because you
own copyright. He
or she should seek
your consent to use
that work to pro-
mote his business.”
To make the case even clearer, Joram
explained that the artist I had engaged
violated two rights: my copyright as I
basically owned the artwork because I
commissioned and paid for it, and image
rights for my friend.
Joram went ahead and clarified that the
consent you receive has to be very specific.
He says, “If today we agree I you give a
piece of my poem to publish on your
website, please note that you cannot
publish anywhere else apart from your
website. If you publish on a newspaper, I
can sue you!”
Wow! Doesn’t that mean if the artist
I had engaged talked to me on getting
my consent to publish the artwork on
his Facebook and I agreed, but he posts
on Facebook and also on his WhatsApp
status, he’d have gone beyond the consent
I would have given? It is that complex,
Joram says.
To make it clearer, he explains, “If you pay
me to draw a comic magazine that you
publish here in Kenya but later on you
spread that work to the whole of Africa, I
will sue you! And… There's more! Before
an artist signs off on their work, there
are things you may tell them which may
negate their consent. If, as an artist, you
tell me that I sell my work to you to use
for charity but later you start selling it, I
can sue you for misrepresentation.”
At this point, I had had enough! I had
seen the complexity of copyright, consent
and intellectual property, and I just feel
that young people need to be aware of
these issues as they do their best to be
self-employed from their talents and
passions.
George Mbithi is passionate
about
Authentic
Leadership,
Strategic Communication, Public
Engagement and Organizational
Governance.
The
current
Communications Manager for
Population Services International
in Somalia writes about Social,
Leadership
and
Management
issues. You can commune with him
on this or other matters via mail on:
Mbithig@gmail.com.