Should creatives be worried? Artists are worried about Parliament moving the Protection of Sovereignty Bill 2026. As creatives earning from international platforms like Spotify, YouTube, and Boomplay, we seek clarification: does this kind of income make one a “foreign agent” under the proposed law since they are foreign owned?
Just three weeks ago, Uganda passed the Copyright Amendment Act, giving musicians stronger legal protection over their streaming income, downloads, and broadcast royalties. For many creatives, it felt like the biggest win in a generation.
Now this bill defines an “agent of a foreigner” as anyone whose activities are financed by a foreign entity. And the reality is, platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube are all foreign owned. So the concern is straightforward: the moment money from any of these platforms hits your account, does that legally make you a foreign agent?
The reported penalties are severe up to twenty years in prison and fines of up to two billion shillings for failing to register. Even more worrying, there are claims that the bill would cap foreign income at 400M Ugx a year roughly $107,000. That’s a limit a single viral song, a sync deal, or an international award could easily exceed.
So i ask should the creative worry yet or….?Please guide. #NBSAfter5 | cc @ekongot
Statistical impossibilities: Museveni scored 100% at 348 polling stations. At all these polling stations, no one in the area died, no one has migrated, none was sick nor did a single person forego voting for any conceivable reason https://t.co/pVUfSKa5dG #UGElections2021