Safaricom’s lost war to encourage piracy of copyrighted works
Safaricom has lost the battle and also maybe the war to profit from copyrighted materials.
Yesterday, the High Court confirmed a permanent injunction compelling internet service providers (ISPs) to block sports pirate websites infringing on copyrighted material.
In November 2019, Multichoice Kenya filed a suit against Safaricom Plc and Jamii Telecom Ltd seeking to compel the ISPs to block live sports streaming sites on their networks.
The High Court had earlier issued a temporary order to the ISPs to block the said infringing content but the same was swiftly stayed by the Court of Appeal on application by Safaricom.
In delivering her verdict, Justice Wilfrida Okwany made a finding that MultiChoice Kenya had lawfully issued valid take-down notices to the ISPs and they ought to have complied with the same.
She further found that the ISPs have not given any lawful excuse for their failure to comply with the take-down notices.
Safaricom has been on the forefront of piracy, underhand tactics to make profits by all means.
The defence of their disrespect for intellectual property is well documented.
Earlier this year, top blogger Cyprian Nyakundi exposed that the Telco stole a whole copyrighted proposal on youth centric marketing from Transcend Media Group.
Read more on Safaricom anti-intellectual Property drive:
On delivery of her ruling, Safaricom requested and was granted by the court 72 hours to comply with take-down notices. The ISPs have long opposed the takedown provisions in the Copyright (Amendment) Act and had sought to have the takedown provisions wholly repealed from the Act 18 months after they’re coming into force.
