The Internet has made it tough for any anyone to protect an intellectual property. Western artists with resources are better equipped to fight internet piracy. Artists from East Africa appear to have waved a white flag and gone home.
Music And Video Streaming Sites
Mini-YouTubes and Mini-Spotifies have become mom-and-pop shops. Whether these sites are for a hobby or a business, they are less likely to help the copyright owners. While The Horn Post cannot tell if the sites are making money for their respective owners, almost all of them have some sort of advertisements displayed. The three sites we reviewed have statements encouraging copyright owners to contact them if they have concerns; two of them a verbatim copy of the other. Even though the sites stated a will to link to artists’ sales page, The Horn Post was unable to find a link to a sales page. The third one appears to make reporting harder as it requires a written and signed statement.
OROMP3dotcom—music and video streaming site.
Oromp3 website screenshot
Domain Registration information:
Registrant Name: Ferhan Omar
Creation Date: 2012-06-20
Copyright Statement:
OroMP3.com strives to provide a safe and secure platform for established artists as well as new and upcoming talents to share their music with the rest of the Oromo community worldwide. Copyright holders are encouraged to provide vendor information in order to direct users that are interested in purchasing their songs. Copyright holders are encouraged to contact us through our contact form for partnership or if you have any further questions or concerns. If you believe that material you own has been copied and made accessible in a manner that violates your intellectual property rights, please notify us immediately.
— Oromp3 dot com
AddisZefendotcom—music and video streaming site.
addiszefen: music and video streaming website offering artists’ work for free. (Screen Shot by The Horn Post, May 21, 2016)
Domain Registration information: Private.
Registrant Name: Private.
Creation Date: 2005-12-12
Copyright statement:
AddisZefen.com strives to provide a safe and secure platform for established artists as well as new and upcoming talents to share their music with the rest of the Ethiopian community worldwide. Copyright holders are encouraged to provide vendor information in order to direct users that are interested in purchasing their songs. Copyright holders are encouraged to contact us for any updates or removal of a song from our collection. We will gladly comply. Copyright holders are encouraged to contact us for partnership or if you have any further questions or concerns.
— Addiszefen dot com
habeshazefendotcom—music and video streaming site.
habeshazefen: music and video streaming website offering artists’ work for free. (Screen Shot by The Horn Post, May 21, 2016)
Domain Registration information:
Registrant Name: Private.
Creation Date: 2010-04-21
Copyright Statement:
Any claims of copyright infringement involving materials or works on the Habesha Zefen web site should be submitted in writing to Habesha Zefen’s Designated Agent and should include the following: Your electronic or physical signature; The identification or description of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed; A description of where the allegedly infringing content is located on the habeshazefen.com web site, sufficient enough for us to locate the material in question; Your name, address, telephone number, facsimile number, and/or e-mail address, so Habesha Zefen can contact you about your claim; A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use in question is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notification is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf. All notices of copyright infringement should be sent to Songza’s Designated Agent:
— Habeshazefen dot com
YouTube Channels
According to this New York Times profiling of Olga Kay–YouTube star, it is possible to make money of off videos, in fact, a lot of it if you have millions of subscribers and views. For an artist with a platform and own channel, it is possible to make some money, may not be as big as that of Olga Kay. Furthermore, the control over own work is priceless.
The Horn Post reviewed two popular YouTube music videos from East Africa and found the videos were uploaded to the popular video site by individuals other than the artists (original content creators).
A screen shot of a music video on YouTube (Screen Shot by The Horn Post, May 21, 2016)
A screen shot of a music video on YouTube (Screen Shot by The Horn Post, May 21, 2016)
Online Music Outlets
Internet piracy can happen on online music outlets like itunes and Google Play. The Horn Post suspects this may be the case in an album titled “Oromo Music” on itunes . We asked Apple to reveal the identity of the artist named Afaan Oromoo, but we haven’t received a response as of this publication.
A screen shot of Oromo Music album on itunes (Screen Shot by The Horn Post, May 21, 2016)
