República Unida de Tanzanía

Patrick Balisidya v The Executive Director Audio Master and others, Civil Case No. 37 of 1989, High Court of Tanzania at Dar es Salaam

Kyando J.

Date of Ruling: May 19, 1990

Facts

The plaintiff, the composer of the “Bahati Album”, sued the defendants for copyright Infringement. The plaintiff alleged the defendants produced, sold, and/or distributed cassette copies of “Bahati Album” without a licence. AI Records (K) Ltd was the sole licensed producer and distributor of the “Bahati Album”. The plaintiff argued that since he was the author and composer of the musical production and AI Records was the sole producer and distributor of the album, the copyright was jointly owned. The defendants contested the suit on the ground that the plaintiff had no cause of action against them in terms of section 13 (2) of the Copyright Act, 1966.

Holdings

(i) Under section 12 (1) of the Copyright Act, 1966, copyright “shall be transmissible by assignment, by testamentary disposition or by operation of law, as movable property.”

(ii) Copyright cannot be owned jointly because owner of copyright under section 13 (1) of the Copyright Act, 1996, is either the first owner, or an assignee of an exclusive license.

(iii) Once the first owner assigns or licenses his work to the assignee or an exclusive licensee, he ceases to be the owner of copyright and the assignee or licensee becomes the owner exclusively.

(iv) The right to sue in cases of infringement of copyright is conferred to the owner of copyright in terms of section 13 (2) of the Copyright Act, 1966

Decision

(i) Under the Copyright Act, 1966, copyright could be assigned or disposed of and there is more than ample evidence that the plaintiff assigned or disposed of the copyright in his composition to AI Records (K) Ltd

(ii) AI Records (K) Ltd were the owners of the copyright in the “Bahati Album”, not the plaintiff. Thus, the plaintiff is not the correct party to sue for copyright infringement of the album.