MPs to summon Baryomunsi, UCC over legal vacuum as Copyright Bill rekindles AI debate

KAMPALA - Until recently, reincarnation was purely a spiritual concept. But nowadays, there’s hardly anything that technology can’t bring back to life. From reconstructing dinosaurs to reimagining Cotilda, the last slave ship to ply the Middle Passage, technology’s reach is expanding pretty fast.

And now, showbiz is becoming one of its fastest-growing client lists.

First, there was Michael Jackson’s hologram performance at the 2014 Billboard Awards, where he moonwalked in front of a capacity crowd in Las Vegas, five years after his death.

Just when we thought this was the peak of strangeness, artificial intelligence (AI) stepped in, bringing the voices of deceased artistes back to life.

Late Mowzey Radio scenario

Over a year ago, Ugandans were left in awe when a YouTube channel called Nva Kampala Records released a remix of Azawi’s hit “Masavu,” featuring the late Radio Mowzey, who passed away on February 1, 2018.

The remix included hooks that captured the unmistakable style of his prime years. To this day, many listeners refuse to believe that his verse was engineered artificially.

Some still think it was recorded way before his death. This is a testament to how fascinating technology and the world have become.

Taking cognisance of the above, Paul Mukiibi, the head of the department of law reporting, research, and law reform at the Law Development Centre (LDC), says Uganda must update its legal framework to keep pace with these developments and avoid descending into legal chaos.

He echoed this warning on Tuesday, August 12, 2025, during an interface with the House Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee, chaired by Bukhooli North MP Stephen Bakka Mugabi (NRM).

At the time, the two parties were scrutinising the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights (Amendment) Bill 2025.

Mukiibi regretted the absence of an all-encompassing national AI policy. While AI can generate all types of copyright-protected material, he observed that the Copyright Bill, which is in the making, is void of this subject.

“For example, AI-generated performances can replicate human voices, including those of deceased artistes, raising complex copyright, moral rights and ethical issues. The Bill contains no safeguards for how AI tools should be regulated, how consent should be obtained or how enforcement should work in the context of AI-generated content,” Mukiibi noted.

“The AI-generated remix (Masavu) was uploaded to YouTube and to this day continues to generate income for the uploader even though both Mowzey Radio’s voice and Azawi’s original work were used without proper licensing or authorisation,” he said.

Legal questions

A scenario, he intimated, highlights the monetary exploitation of AI-generated works in the absence of a clear legal framework. Something, he said, has left original creators without recourse or compensation.

“When AI recreates a voice of performance, who owns the resulting work? Is it the estate of the deceased artiste, the AI tool creator or the uploader?” Mukiibi posed.

“There is no current requirement for AI-generated use of a person’s voice, likeness or musical work to be licensed or authorised by the rights holder. Without regulation, AI-generated remixes can generate revenue for uploaders while bypassing the original creators and their heirs,” he warned.

Fast forward, Mukiibi also pointed out that the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights (Amendment) Bill 2025 lacks mechanisms to detect and address AI abuses such as voice cloning, where someone’s voice is imitated to transmit a message.

Speaker Among falls victim

At the beginning of this month, Makerere University student Elson Tumwine was sentenced to two months in jail for creating a fake audio clip purporting to show Parliament Speaker Anita Among responding to President Yoweri Museveni’s recent apology to Buganda.

“Museveni says he has apologised to the Baganda. He behaves as if that is the only part of the country he offended. Museveni burnt a full train of human beings in Mukura. He set a train on fire. Yes, in Teso, in Mukura,” the fake audio claimed.

Committee ruling

Taking cognisance, Stephen Bakka Mugabi, the chairperson of the Legal and Parliament committee, promised to summon relevant authorities for a discussion at a yet to be designated date next week. 

"I think we need to invite the ministry (ICT), Law Reform Commission, National Information and Technology Authority (NITA-U) and Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) next week. So, that probably the mover of the bill can now bring additional clauses on AI,” Mugabi ruled.

“We could do it as a committee, but we don’t have that capacity. We’re very busy, so we cannot go into studying AI issues. I think we will have to refer all the AI issues back to the mover,” he added.