Popular Musician Mutoriah will head to court after talks over compensation with popular Instagrammer Foi Wambui and Oppo Kenya broke down. The singer accused Foi and Oppo of using his song “Beta” in an online advertisement for the OPPO Reno 125G without consulting him.
He claims that the content creator created a video featuring the song. He asserted that Foi and Oppo have shared the song on social media for several days. According to Mutoriah’s legal team, using the song in this manner violated Kenya’s copyright laws. The team sent a demand letter. They outlined the case insisting that they used the song without a proper licence.
” We are informed that in the said video, our client’s song titled ‘BETA’ was synchronized with the visuals without a synchronization license contrary to the provisions of the Kenya Copyright Act Cap 130 Laws of Kenya. The same video was heavily promoted by Oppo Kenya as a sponsored post on Instagram for six days.”
“Mutoriah will now go to court, these are the instructions he has given to his lawyers. The amount offered doesn’t reflect the true value of his artistic work, considering that this is a violation of his intellectual property rights.” The demand letter read.
Mutoriah Orders His Lawyers to go Ahead With Legal Action
Following the demand Foi’s team and Oppo negotiated an out of court settlement with Mutoriah. Mutoriah’s team rejected their Ksh 50,000 offer. They didn’t feel like it reflected the value of his work. They tried to convince Mutoriah to accept the offer, however the discussions failed.
Mutoriah has ordered his lawyers to go ahead with legal action. He asserted that Oppo Kenya and Foi have violated the rights. Oppo Kenya insisted that Foi and advertiser who hired her didn’t involve them in the agreement.
Part of their response reads,
“Our client states that it is not privy to the allegations of copyright infringement as alleged by your client. Further, our client affirms that it has never infringed on your client’s alleged intellectual property rights in his literary works,”
Oppo Kenya maintained that it didn’t seek Foi Wambui’s services at all.
