Rapper Julius Owino Ooko, well known as Juliani, threatens to sue Jubilee Party for using his ‘Utawala’ song to promote a Building Bridges Initiative video without his approval.
Through his lawyer Katee David of James T. Makori Advocate, Juliani said that the party posted the BBI promotional video on its Twitter account on October 31 using part of his song.
He said the video was captioned:
“Did you know that the #BBI report proposes the establishment of Office of the Ombudsman of the Judiciary which shall play the important oversight role and receive complaints from the members of the public against judicial officers?”
Juliani alleges in the letter to Jubilee Party secretary-general Raphael Tuju that the party did not seek his consent before using a portion of his song as a soundtrack of the video.
“Our client, being the author of the song, enjoys exclusive rights under Copyright law hence his creative work cannot be used by anyone else for whatever purpose without authorisation,” his advocate said.
His lawyer said that only the copyright owner has the right to reproduce/publish, make available, perform, or make an adaptation of his creative works and any other person/entity would require a license to do so to avoid infringement.
Juliani's lawyer added that the party's BBI promotional video goes against building bridges, for it is denying the artist his right to earn an honest living.
He also argued that by using his work, Juliani's reputation to the public, as well as his earning, will be negatively affected in the future.
"In view of the foregoing, we hereby demand that you cease and desist from further using our client's creative work to advance your agenda and to pull down the promotional video from all your social medial platforms with immediate effect."
Juliani has also demanded that the party should admit liability for infringement of intellectual property rights in writing within the next 72 hours.
The lawyer said that he will institute mandatory legal proceedings against the party for damages to his client if the Jubilee chooses to ignore the letter.
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