Award winning and freelance photographer, Alex Esagala, has dragged New vision printing and publishing company limited to court for infringing on copyright of his photograph.
Through his layers of Kaggwa and Kaggwa Advocate, the plaintiff seeks Shs 400billion arising from infringement of copyright being usage fees, damages from the date of publication of the photography until full settlement of the suit and costs.
The plaintiff avers that on the 25th day of November,2019, New vision printing and publishing company through its local dialect newspaper Bukedde, published the said photograph on page 18 without accrediting or seeking the his consent yet it was a special report on how to overcome strikes in universities .
He contends that last month through his lawyers, he wrote a notice of intention to sue to New vision printing and publishing company limited however it was ignored.
According to Mr Esagala, he took that picture and several others during one of the student protests in Makerere University in April, 2018. The said pictures were taken under extreme circumstances that included police brutality.
On the 17th day of April, 2018, the Daily Monitor published the said photograph on the front page and its various media platforms and accredited the same to the Plaintiff and the said photo won Uganda Press Photo Award in 2018 that was sponsored by the European Union, Democratic Governance Facility (DGF), Canon and the United States Embassy in Kampala.
He said the Vision Group earns through advertising and circulation revenue from Bukedde newspaper and other media platforms like Bukedde 1 and 2 television, twitter and facebook from running such award winning photos.
The defendant has enjoyed a benefit at the exploitation and detriment of Esagala as the author of the photograph. In the circumstances, New vision is liable to pay the said sum of money and has no defence to the claim whatsoever either at law or at all.
