You risk facing a Jail Term of upto 10 years for circulating Newspapers on WhatsApp Groups and other similar platforms the govt has said.
According to the Copyrights Act of 2001, distributing the papers online is a crime that could easily land you behind bars.
Kenya Copyrights Board (KECOBO) Executive director Edward Sigei revealed that both the sender and the recipient commits an offence for been in possession of unauthorised digital copies
Spending
“Anyone who tries to circumvent technical protection measures that are placed on digital platforms to access these works and downloads commits an offence,” Sigei told NTV.
Apart from loosing significant revenue from illegal online sales, the papers’ reputation has also come under siege.
In a some cases, malicious people have deliberately twisted the original headlines and shared them on digital platforms.
However, stopping online distribution would be an uphill task for KECOBO considering that online platforms in Kenya are largely unmonitored
Many newpaper vendors have lost revenue due to covid 19 pandemic with many readers accessing local dailies in soft copies
