The Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) has issued a warning against the use of photographs, illustrations or videos without proper acknowledgement of their owners.

KECOBO issued an advisory on Wednesday after its attention was drawn to the issue by the copyright owners.

“Our attention has been drawn to the widespread usage of photographs, videos, illustrations, and books from third parties in social media without sufficient acknowledgement amidst protest by the copyright owners,” the statement read.

Through its Executive Director Edward Sigei, KECOBO said authors of a copyrighted work have the right to be adequately acknowledged for their work whenever their pieces of work are used under the Copyright law.

“Under Copyright law, authors of a copyright work have the right to be adequately acknowledged when portions of their works are used within fair dealing due to moral rights requirements,” the statement continued.

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Sigei warned against the use of the common term courtesy because it is not an acknowledgement. He went ahead ash explained the proper way of crediting someone for their work.

“Take note that the widely used term ‘courtesy’ e.g., ‘photo courtesy’ is NOT an acknowledgement,” Sigei said.

“An acknowledgement must clearly show name of the author and in some instances the name of the work if relevant e.g., Maasai Mara Lions, Photograph by George Gitau (Cameracrew Itd, Video by Victoria Ouma, Sihamikenya films for it sufficient. In the age social media, the author account may be added e.g., @sihamikenyafilms.”

Sigei also said in the case of books, all contributors to a copyrighted work e.g., illustrators of books and other graphic material, should be clearly and sufficiently acknowledged regardless of the terms of engagement as they hold moral rights.

The news was received well by some photographers who can relate to the matter:

Sigei encouraged copyright owners to always show links to their work by embedding digital signatures, watermarks or other unique marks on their works.