Copyright law is complicated but there are some basics (if we have any lawyers here that are good at this maybe they can advise us). Someone somewhere (and might not even be Eric Wainaina) had to get permission from Eric Wainana and all the other parties involved in EACH of the song (I haven't seen his album really) before they could put any song on a CD for sale. I suspect that Eric has a Publisher who did this and the publisher gets money for each CD sold (unless other arrangements have been made. Remember for Eric to allow his music to be "duplicated" into CDs, he was told how many so he licensed that number. Now when it comes to digital, everytime you download a song, you have actualy made a COPY of that song! So someone needs to authorize you to offer COPYING of music. Whether at PewaHewa its legal or not depends on the agreements they have with the person they got the music from. If you go and find the artist whose voice you hear in a song and sign a contract with that person without confirming they have permission to offer the OTHER rights in a song, then your contract would ideally be invalid. A little research a while back showed me pewahewa was working with MCSK. My research shows most of the content at MCSK has not been signed by all parties! Make the conclusion on that on your own! Let me illustrate this abit further: You and your brother own a goat at 50/50. Your brother is also a member of a society that sells goats called (lets call it GCSK J ). One morning your brother goes to GCSK and tells them he has a goat and they tell him, we can sell the goat. They take the goat and sell it. You return home and your brother tells you BTW, I sold the goat..and he tells you.I was paid my 50% and directs you to go to GCSK to get your money. At GCSK, they tell you, if you are not a member we can't pay you! Further, they tell you, after 3 yrs any money we collect that belongs to non-members "evaporates" - well not in those words exactly! That my brothers and sisters is what is happening at MCSK - at least with content that's owned by me partly. Regards From: kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+bkioko=bernsoft.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Tony Likhanga Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2012 5:26 AM To: bkioko@bernsoft.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] Music Piracy in Kenya - Government can Help Thanks for the insight Ben. If I looked at the license model from a very simplistic angle, would I, the consumer, be making wrong assumptions (especially in light of the local market) if I were to use the price tag on the music as a pointer to the legality of the product? To illustrate this I'll use Eric Wainaina's music album on PewaHewa. The album has 14 tracks each priced at Kes 30. Price tag on the original sealed CD copy of the music from Nakumatt Supermarket = Kes 399.00 Price tag on the same Music bought from PewaHewa (Ignoring transaction costs) = Kes 30 x 14 = Kes 420.00 Am I misguided to conclude that I would be buying a legitimate copy of the Album from an online source on the basis of this simplistic analysis? If yes, then are there any controls that can be enforced on the online music vendors who are likely exploit this approach. Tony.