A court case in which an IT graduate has been charged with illegally selling and distributing the Nation Media Group’s digital newspapers has generated wide media coverage and interest among readers and viewers.
Mr Antony Mwanzia Kimeu was arraigned at the Milimani Law Courts on March 2, and the case is ongoing. The digital versions of the Daily Nation, Business Daily, Taifa Leo and The EastAfrican were being sold to “subscribers” in a WhatsApp group who were charged a monthly rate, the court was told.
As the public follows the court proceedings with keen interest, many are asking what amounts to copyright infringement. Would sharing a newspaper’s cover page in a WhatsApp group or on your social media accounts put you in trouble? When can a media house, publishing company, or author take legal action against you?
The Fixing the Nation’s crew on Wednesday, July 8, asked some of these questions during a discussion with Mr Sekou Owino, NMG’s General Counsel. The 45-minute session was a comprehensive lesson on intellectual property rights with important learnings for media consumers.
One is to have a basic understanding of what belongs to you when you buy a newspaper, and why you cannot sell its content.
“That newspaper is a collection of ideas and information that people have collected and put together. The intellectual effort of putting it together belongs to whoever has congregated those people to do it. That is intellectual property of a category known as ‘copyright’. So, even though you have bought the newspaper, what it has given you is your right to access the news, in the format in which it is presented. But that collection of news is not entirely yours. That is why several people will buy and read the paper. They are basically benefiting from the effort of a group of people who have put it together. So, you cannot sell it because you are basically selling somebody else’s work.”
The publication is, therefore, the intellectual property of the media house. Sharing or selling the content undercuts the media house by denying it the right to reap the economic benefits of its investment.
Only fair sharing is permissible. In this case, one must give credit to the publication. However, even where there is attribution, only a paragraph or two may be taken from a story. You may not copy an entire story and then claim to give credit, as this amounts to plagiarism. For example, sharing a story’s headline or first paragraph (intro) is permissible, but you must recognise that someone has made the effort to gather the facts and put the entire story together, and this content ought to be paid for. Readers may also share the front pages of newspapers on social media.
Then there was the question of artificial intelligence and the unfair practices employed by the owners. While the tech companies are careful not to infringe on the publishers’ copyrights, their content aggregation models still deny media houses revenue as they divert traffic from their websites. Some countries have enforced laws to address this by ensuring fair compensation for the use of content.
Another category of property rights where there have been recent cases of infringement for media is the trademark. This refers to the logo or symbol that identifies a brand. Individuals or organisations could soon find themselves in court for using the mastheads of newspapers or the logos of television stations to promote their services or to spread false information.
Ultimately, as a consumer of media content, it is important to understand how media companies pay for their operations—including paying the salaries of the journalists who put the news and other stories together—and, possibly, make a profit for their shareholders. Most rely on the sale of their content, through subscription on online platforms or the sale of physical newspapers, and advertising revenue. They own the intellectual rights to their publications and platforms, and unauthorised sharing, distribution, or sale of their content is actionable.
The discussion also addressed copyright for book publishers and authors, as well as musicians, and patents for companies and researchers.
The benefit of multiple platforms for NMG is the symbiotic relationship that should allow for content sharing while retaining their unique identities. The discussion on intellectual property rights deserved amplification in print, given its significance and public interest value.
Contact the Public Editor to raise ethical concerns or request a review of published material. Reach out: Email: [email protected] . Mobile number: 0741978786.
