The High Court sitting in Nairobi has issued orders requiring Safaricom and Jamii Telkom to pull down and disable 141 sites that are suspected to be infringing on Multichoice Kenya’s copyright.
Justice Winfrida Okwany allowed the prayer by Multichoice Kenya to have the websites containing the offending content pulled down as per section 35D (2) of the Copyright Act pending full hearing of the suit on March 3, 2021.
The judge gave these orders as interim measure to prevent further infringement of copyright before the matter is conclusively determined.
This follows a takedown notice by Multichoice Kenya to Safaricom and Jamii Telkom which were not acted on in time forcing Multichoice Kenya to file the suit. The Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) and Communications Authority (CA) are listed as interested parties in the suit.
This is the first time that a Kenyan court has sanctioned takedown notice as provided for under section 35B of the Copyright Act as amended in 2019.
The law under this section provides: “A person whose rights have been infringed by content to which access is being offered by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) may request by way of a takedown notice that the ISP removes the infringing content.”
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