Transitional Collective Management of Copyrights in Kenya: Legal, Policy and Administrative Reforms

Abstract

The evolution of the collective management of copyrights in Kenya over the past decades has altered some of the traditional pretexts that have previously served as a basis for the regulation of CMOs. The current impasse between the Board and the CMOs and the decision by the Board to suspend the collection of royalties for at least three months are an aide-memoire that the theoretical and practical paradigms in our present regime are not an adequate response to the transitional realities. It is therefore crucial to have a look at the transitional conditions in which the collective management of copyrights is carried out in Kenya so as to seal the lacuna that mars the legal, policy and administrative framework on the regulation of CMOs. This paper takes into consideration the infeasibility of individual management of copyrights as well as the de jure and de facto monopoly position enjoyed by CMOs in Kenya and subsequently suggests a seamless transitional framework which would ensure a continuum in the performance of functions hitherto performed by a CMO. Indeed, CMOs have become indispensable intermediaries in the Kenyan copyright system and a transitional period only accentuates their importance. Whereas no given society can boast of having attained the acme of legal omniscience, the foregoing recommendations envision elevating the Kenyan legal, policy and administrative framework to heights that enable the eschewal of any challenges that may be posed in the transitional context of collective copyright management.