Ignore the fake news! The Kenyan National anthem has not been copyrighted by British music company, De Wolfe.
De Wofle Music Company has come out to clear the air on the allegations, denying any copyright ownership of the national anthem. According to the music firm, what they posted on their YouTube channel is just a sound recording of the anthem.
The copyright issue arose after Kenyan YouTuber 2nacheki reported that one of their videos received a copyright strike.
“We wondered why it had copyright issues yet it is a Kenyan property. We posted a video mentioning the top 10 national anthems in Africa, and because we had put Kenya’s as number one, it got a copyright strike from a company called De Wolfe Music,” the YouTuber said.
But in response, De Wofle Managing Director Warren de Wolfe said his company does not own the rights to the Kenyan national anthem. He noted that most national anthems are non-copyright.
“We do not own, or claim to own, the copyright to the Kenyan National Anthem, most National anthems are non copyright and are in the public domain, due either to their age, or by legislation making national symbols copyright-free,” Warren said.
He added: “We have a sound recording of this work but we do not claim any other ownership and have never copyrighted ownership of the composition as this in the public domain.”
According to Warren, 2nacheki received the copyright strike after a music identification system picked up the usage of the recording. He said it has since been cleared.
“It would seem in this case that AdRev’s music identification systems have highlighted the use of this recording and automatically questioned whether the Sound recording has been cleared, this claim has now been reversed,” said Warren.
2nacheki confirmed the same on Twitter, sharing a screenshot of an email from YouTube.
Thanks you @KenyaCopyright @kot @citizentvkenya @TheStarKenya . @YouTube @deWolfeMusic @adrevnet have released the #copyright claim on the #KenyanNationalAnthem pic.twitter.com/MbpajIwN5Q
— 2nacheki (@mikeymushi) February 6, 2019
In a statement, the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) said “the government has copyright for its commissioned works for up to 50 years”.
