By Male Ronald
‘Mwoyo’ singer Maurice Kirya has dragged one of the biggest telecom companies in Uganda, MTN to the commercial court and demands sh500 million over copyright violation.
According to the singer, MTN was offering some of his songs to its subscribers as a call back tune at a fee without his consent. This attracted several customers to its networks which earned the telecom company significantly but paid him nothing. Maurice Kirya confirmed that MTN was using his songs when he subscribed for the service and requested for one of his songs which was given to him after deducting his airtime as payment for the caller tune. The singer claims that he has lost market for his songs and is no longer called for concerts and performances because his songs can easily be downloaded by the telecom subscribers who are also his fans and this has caused him loss of income to a tune of sh500m which he wants court to oblige MTN to pay as general damages.
These are some the songs which MTN sells to its subscribers; Misubbawa which was coded as 5022233, Mulembe gwa Kirya-5023730, Die for you-5023481 and Don’t cry-5023482
