Hot on the heels of a hefty Kshs 4 million win by “We Kamu” hitmaker Nonini in a copyright battle, another storm is brewing, this time with Afro-ElectroPop star Mutoriah front and center.
Mutoriah, the artist behind the banger Beta, has reportedly served up a legal cocktail that Oppo Kenya and content creator Foi Wambui might not have been ready to drink. The artist is accusing the pair of using his copyrighted track Beta without permission to sell the latest Oppo Reno12 5G smartphone. Uh-oh!
According to Nation Africa’s Nairobi News, Foi posted a flashy video on her socials on August 31 hyping up Oppo’s new Reno12 5G device. Cool, right? Well, not for Mutoriah. Why? They didn’t ask the man behind the beats for a synchronization license. Mutoriah, understandably, is not pleased. Here’s a YouTube video of the song in question.
The latest copyright saga seems to be following the playbook from Nonini’s landmark case. Just last month, a Kenyan court handed Nonini a cool Kshs 4 million after content creator Brian Mutinda used his song to advertise Syinix TVs without the artist’s green light. Now, Mutoriah seems to be heading down a similar legal path.
In a demand letter dated September 10 and seen by Nairobi News, Mutoriah’s lawyers are coming in hot. The letter claims that Foi Wambui, the content creator in question, used Beta in her Oppo Reno12 promo video which was posted on her Instagram and heavily pushed by Oppo Kenya as a sponsored post for six whole days. They didn’t just go all out with the video, but according to Mutoriah, they went all in without permission.
When Mutoriah’s team got wind of it and contacted Foi and Oppo, panic struck. The content was quickly yanked off their social media, but Mutoriah isn’t letting that slide. Deleting the video? That, according to his lawyers, is an “admission of guilt.”
Now, the ball is in Oppo and Foi’s court. Mutoriah is demanding a public apology from both parties within two days. Failure to do so could see them joining the courtroom drama, with Mutoriah’s team ready to take this all the way to trial.
While Nonini’s case has already made waves, this developing situation could be the next big copyright showdown in Kenya’s digital ad space. So far, Oppo Kenya and Foi have remained mum on the issue, but with Mutoriah’s camp poised for action, we can only imagine things are about to get even juicier.
