Sheebah with Ykee Benda on stage“In Uganda, we don’t buy music; we borrow it forever”; This industry joke has long been the reality for songwriters and musicians who watch their hits turn into millions of shillings for telecom companies while they receive “exposure” and fame in return. With the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights (Amendment) Bill, 2025, the government has finally declared that exposure no longer pays the rent. However, history is littered with “perfect” Ugandan laws that died at the altar of implementation. Is this Bill a genuine revolution, or just another political encore? As musicians like Eddy Kenzo and Sheebah Karungi celebrated what they termed a “monumental victory,” a haunting question remains: Is the industry truly ready for the implications of this new legal dawn, or is the celebration premature? Perhaps, the most “powerful” clause in the bill addresses Caller Ring Back Tones (CRBT). Previously, artists reportedly received as little as 1.8% of the gross revenue from their music used as ringtones. The new law mandates a radical shift: creators/Performers: 60% of the revenue, Telecom Operators: 31.5%, Aggregators: 8.5%. Piracy in Uganda has long been a “low-risk, high-reward” venture. The amendment introduces stiffer penalties, including fines exceeding five thousand currency points and imprisonment terms of up to 10 years for significant copyright infringement. To address the long-standing distrust between artists and bodies like the Uganda Performing Rights Society (UPRS), the bill mandates: transparency: Compulsory Annual General Meetings (AGMs) within three months of the calendar year-end. Under Accountability: Strict registration requirements and penalties for committee members if meetings are not held. WHY SUCCESS IS NOT GUARANTEEDDespite the legislative triumph, the path to actual “money in the pocket” is littered with obstacles. A law is only as strong as the hand that wields it. It is also pertinent to note that laws in Uganda rarely fail due to bad drafting; they fail due to poor implementation. Piracy has migrated from physical CDs to Telegram groups and encrypted clouds. Without a dedicated, tech-savvy “Copyright Police” and a judiciary trained in Intellectual Property (IP), the new fines may remain mere ink on paper. Barking dogs that do not bite! A significant blow to the bill was the removal of the Private Copying Levy-a small tax on devices (phones, flash drives) that store music. The Attorney General argued this would make gadgets too expensive for the common man. Without this levy, artists lose out on a massive stream of “passive” income that their counterparts in the West rely on. Minister Kabanda proposed that the remuneration shall be paid through a payment system established under the National Payment Systems Act. But remember the mechanism relies on a “Copyright Management System” developed by State House scientists and enforced by agencies like the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) and Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB), isn’t this a government strategic move to equally share the proceeds from musical works? During the final debates, a proposal to regulate Artificial Intelligence (AI) was rejected. In an era where AI can “deepfake” a singer’s voice or generate “new” songs in an artist’s style, the lack of an AI clause leaves Ugandan creators vulnerable to the next frontier of digital theft. One of my former legal mentors, Paul Mukiibi, was at the forefront advocating for inclusion of AI provisions, he alluded to the fact that outdated laws fail to address AI-generated content, necessitating a framework to define authorship, ownership, and protect human creators’ rights in the digital age. The Attorney General claimed that this would be premature regarding an AI policy framework still in the Attorney General’s kitchen. Furthermore, if artists do not register their works with the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) and if the government does not fund digital tracking systems, the 60% share will remain a 60% share of “zero.” Fellow citizens, the law is a shield, but a shield is useless if the warrior doesn’t know how to hold it. Ugandan musicians also need to change their mindset if they truly want to benefit from the law and the new trend! The world is looking at Uganda. Ugandan musicians need to adapt to professionalism! For God and my country. The author is an Intellectual Property Lawyer, an author of music copyright law in Uganda and youth leader.The post Are Ugandan artists ready for the new copyright law? appeared first on The Observer.