THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA,
IN THE HIGH COURT OF UGANDA AT KAMPALA
(COMMERCIAL DIVISION)
HIGH COURT CIVIL SUIT NO 283 OF 2012
AL HAJJI NASSER NTEGE SEBAGALA}....................................................PLAINTIFF
VS
MTN UGANDA LTD}...........................................................................DEFENDANT
SMS MEDIA LTD}..............................................................................THIRD PARTY
BEFORE HON. MR. JUSTICE CHRISTOPHER MADRAMA IZAMA
JUDGMENT
The Plaintiff filed this action is for declaration that the Defendant's use and/or sale of the
Plaintiff's speeches/addresses as ring tones/caller tunes coded as numbers 504529, 504530,
504528 and 504531 constitute an infringement of his copyright. Secondly the Plaintiff seeks a
permanent injunction restraining the Defendant from further violation of the said copyright.
Secondly for an order of audit of all the proceeds received by the Defendant from the use of the
Plaintiffs said copyright and delivery up of the same to the Plaintiff. Furthermore the Plaintiff
seeks general damages, exemplary damages, and aggravated damages, costs of the suit and
interest on the claims from the date of accrual at the rate of 20% per month and further interest at
20% per month from the date of judgement until payment in full.
The Defendant opposed the suit and denies liability to the Plaintiff. Furthermore the Defendant
asserts that it does not own and did not acquire any copyright in the speeches the subject matter
of the suit. The speeches were publicly broadcast in Uganda as current news of public and
political events. Secondly the Plaintiff was an active participant as a Mayor of Kampala City
Council and also ministerial nominee. Furthermore the Defendant asserts that the Plaintiff is not
the author or physical person who created the works in the ring tones as described in the plaint.
Alternatively the Defendant claimed indemnity from the third-party SMS Media Ltd in case the
court finds that it is liable for copyright infringement.
The third-party Messieurs SMS Media Ltd also denies the claims of the Plaintiff and further
contend that the Plaintiff is not the proprietor of the Copyright in the sound recordings which is
the subject matter of the suit. To the contrary the Third Party avers that it is the owner of the
recording by virtue of reducing it to material form and that it has the exclusive moral and
economic rights to the recording.
Decision of Hon. Mr. Justice Christopher Madrama
Izama *^*~?+:
1