By KT Reporter
Musician Kiggundu Bruno, commonly known as Bruno K, has been awarded 130 million Shillings by the High Court after he successfully sued an American music company for infringing on his copyright.
The Commercial division of the High Court presided over by Justice Patricia Mutesi found that Black Market Media, an American based music promotion company that also opened offices in Uganda in 2020, unfairly benefited from the songs composed by Bruno K. “I’m satisfied that the Plaintiff’s copyright was infringed when his songs were struck down from YouTube, when his YouTube channels were taken down, when false claims of copyright infringement were made against him and when his songs were distributed without his consent and benefit… It is my considered finding that the 4th Defendant infringed on the Plaintiff’s copyright and unlawfully exploited the Plaintiff’s songs. It did this by making false copyright infringement complaints against him and by distributing his songs to its profit without the Plaintiff’s consent and without remitting royalties due to the Plaintiff to him,” the judge ruled.
As a remedy, the judge awarded 100 million Shillings to Bruno K as general damages and another 30 million Shillings as aggravated damages.
According to court records, Bruno K signed an agreement with Black Market Records LLC in which he agreed to compose songs, which then would be promoted, and the two would earn royalties. Bruno K told the court that soon after the agreement was signed, Black Market records became elusive, which forced him to end the agreement when the one period expired after he had produced only one song in collaboration with other artists.
After he cancelled the agreement, he went on to produce other songs, which he uploaded to his YouTube channel to market them. To his dismay, Black Market Records petitioned YouTube, claiming that Bruno K had infringed on their copyright. They claimed that they legally owned the songs because they had a running contract with him.
YouTube reacted by suspending Bruno K’s channels for repeated infringement of copyright. It was after Bruno K discovered that Black-Market Records was not a legal company in the United States having been struck off the register of companies in the State of California in March 2013 and therefore, couldn’t have entered into any legal contract, that YouTube was able to reinstate his two channels namely; Bruno K and Real dance Crew-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
