PROTECTING AUTHOR’S MORAL RIGHTS: A NEED FOR REVISITING THE COPYRIGHT LAW IN MAINLAND TANZANIA

Authors

  • Juma Laurean Athanas University of Dodoma

Abstract

Copyright law protects economic and moral rights. The former enables right holders to earn economic gains while the latter aims at protecting author’s personality, honor and identity. The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works sets the minimum term of protection for moral rights. However, the TRIPS agreement does not create an obligation to protect moral rights but requires member states to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to adhere to non-derogatory principle. Mainland Tanzania, being member to Berne Convention, provides the exact minimum term of protection provided under this Convention. This position challenges the sufficiency of protection of moral rights since the Mainland Tanzanian Copyright law protects moral rights for a specific period of time. Hence endangering protection of author’s personality. This article reveals existing weakness on legal protection of author’s moral rights in Mainland Tanzania. Lessons are drawn from Zanzibar, Uganda, Rwanda, EU and China.

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Author Biography

Juma Laurean Athanas, University of Dodoma

An Assistant Lecturer at the University of Dodoma-School of Law (UDOM-SoL), PhD candidate at UDSoL cum Advocate of the High Court of Tanzania, He can be reached through athanasjuma@gmail.com.

Eastern Africa Law Review

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Published

2026-05-01

Issue

Vol. 51 No. 1 (2024): Eastern Africa Law Review

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2026 Juma Laurean Athanas

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This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, adaptation, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.