The Plaintiff‟s evidence is unequivocal about the fact that the sound recordings of whatever he
said, was used by the Defendant and Third Party without his consent. He did not call any other
witness.
DW1 Mr Christopher Ssali testified on behalf of the Defendant that the ringtones were obtained
from SMS Media Ltd, the third-party. He further testified that the third-party owns the copyright.
Furthermore the contents of ringtones 504528 – 504532 were played in court by the Third
Party‟s witness Mr Simon Kaheru and audio CDs were admitted in evidence as TPD2 and TPD3
respectively. He testified that the Plaintiff was addressing the media and intended his message to
be utilised for the general public. The number codes, the subject matter of the suit are the same
recording but with different numbering according to the written testimony of third-party witness
Mr Simon Kaheru in paragraphs 10 to 33 of his written testimony. I have also listened to the
audio recording in the CD admitted in evidence and the words spoken are the same words of the
Plaintiff in the audiovisual recording exhibit TPD1.
The conclusion is that the subject matter of the suit are recordings of the Plaintiff's voice while
answering questions of members of the public after his interview with the Parliamentary
Appointments Committee for purposes of being vetted as a Minister without portfolio nominated
by His Excellency the President of the Republic of Uganda and the occasion was captured in the
video exhibit TPD1.
Subsequently the specific voice in answer to questions was captured but the Third Party edited
out the various questions out of the audio recording thereby forming the ringtones which in that
sense were created by the third-party exclusively using the Plaintiff‟s words and voice. Some
audio reactions from the public in the form of laughter and sounds of incredulity and other
excited emotive and audio reactions of the public are audible in the background.
Going back to the definition in Osborn's Concise Law Dictionary 11th edition at page 45, the
author of a work for copyright purposes is the person who creates the work:
“This is taken to be the producer of the sound recording, the producer and principal
director of the film, the person making the broadcast, the publisher in the case of the
typographical arrangement of a published edition."
The definition suggests strongly that the author is the person directing or doing the recording and
not the person being recorded.
As noted earlier the United Kingdom law has a statutory basis and a long history. According to
Halsbury's laws of England (supra) the word "author" was not defined for works made on or after
1 June 1957 and before first of August 1989. The expression 'author' in relation to sound
recordings referred to the maker who in the case of sound recordings was the person who owned
the first record embodying the recording at the time when the recording was made. In Halsbury's
Decision of Hon. Mr. Justice Christopher Madrama
Izama *^*~?+:
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