Delineating limits of exclusive right of owner or author of a music under Ethiopian Copyright law: The case of music mashup

Abstract

The strikes to a delicate balance between the interests of authors and other rights holders in the control and exploitation of their works on the one hand, and society's competing interest in the free flow of ideas, information, and commerce, on the other hand, is the main purpose of the copyright regime. Yet, technology is modifying the production and distribution patterns of copyrighted works, as well as consumer habits. The purpose of this study is to delineate the limit of exclusive rights of the copyright holder of music under Ethiopian copyright law.. As to the methodology, the research will apply a mixed research approach. The study will follow the qualitative approach of data collection tools to get the primary source which is the copyright proclamation and interview the Ethiopian music copyright and Neighboring right collective management Organization established by the copyright amendment proclamation and Ethiopian Intellectual property Office. Books, articles, research, as well as journals, are used as secondary sources. The study found that the affirmative defense against the exclusive right of musical composers excludes the music mashup. Thus, unauthorized music mashup infringes the exclusive rights of musical work in one way and it encourages further creativity if it has done with the lawful authorization from the copyright holder by balancing the right of the musical author and encouraging new creation. However, the body established to administer the right of musicians collectively does not propose anything toward balancing the interest of copyright holders of music and encouraging new creativity through mashups. Finally, the researcher suggests that the EMCCMO should work effectively to protect the exclusive right of copyright holders without affecting the future creation of music.