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The Jamaican singer instituted a suit in 2015 against Airtel Uganda together with two other defendants and averred that he owns the exclusive intellectual property in some of the above-mentioned songs.
The singer claimed that he had never assigned his copyright and intellectual property rights to the defendants.
In addition, he claimed that Airtel Uganda and its accomplices unlawfully accessed the songs and availed them to the public as caller tunes at a fee of UGX 600 per download.
Court orders Airtel Uganda to pay Shs670M to Jamaican singer Konshens for copyright infringement. The High Court in Kampala has ordered Airtel Uganda to pay general damages of $180,000 (about 670M) to Jamaican singer Garfield Spence alias Konshens for copyright infringement.
The plaintiff went on and sought from the court for declaration that the defendants’ actions without passing to him the proceeds thereof were illegal and amounted to infringement of his copyright.
He prayed for an order for the remission of profits that had accrued from the sale of all his songs, general and exemplary damages plus interest and costs of the suit.
In the judgment entered by Hon. Justice Patricia Mutesi on 21st August 2023 for the Jamaican star against Airtel Uganda & 2 ORS, it was declared that the defendants were liable and the plaintiff (Konshens) was awarded general damages of USD 180,000 approximately UGX 630,000,000 as compensation for infringement of his copyright and UGX 30,000,000 as exemplary damages.
