In a bid to tackle increasing cybercrime involving violation and infringement on its copyrights and trademarks, YouTube has pulled down eight online sites for illegally using Next Media content which is solely supposed to be managed by Afro Mobile.
The Chief of Legal and Regulatory Compliance Ismail Obadia said such operationalisation of such illegal sites and platforms threatened both the current and future revenue avenues for content creators in Uganda in general hence the need to seek legal remedies of addressing this challenge.
Cyber crime is increasingly eating up the content production and promotion industry in Uganda.
One of the suspects, Ismail Kasozi, the proprietor of YouTube channel, Kik Media, confessed to illegally using NBS TV content and of other Next media platforms. Kik Media uploads programmes like Barometer Akaasameeme on its site to attract viewer traffic and subscribers to the account.
“I have been uploading NBS TV content without authorisation,” Kasozi confessed.
Obadia said the management of Next Media decided to embark on a journey to protect its content.
“We are saying look, Next Media services has trademarks and is protected under the law as far as all its shows are concerned. So when people go and create online platforms, you find people on YouTube creating various accounts on which shows like Barometer Akaasameeme, Frontline, Big Talk, Uncut are uploaded,” Obadia said.
He said this deprives Next Media and its subsidiaries that rely on this content of revenue.
Obadia said YouTube and Google have assured Next Media of protection of its content and have taken down some of the sites that have been illegally uploading this content.
“We are glad that YouTube and Google have responded positively and seven of these accounts have been taken down. But not only that, we have gone ahead to arrest some of these copyright violators,” Obadia affirmed.
