Assessing the Effectiveness of Tanzania’s Cybercrimes Act in Combating Digital Copyright Violations: Section 24, Enforcement Gaps and Reform Options

Abstract

Tanzania’s Cybercrimes Act, 2015 was intended to close the gap left by an analogue-era copyright statute, but its central intellectual property provision, section 24, has never been judicially tested. This article asks whether section 24 provides a clear legal basis for prosecuting digital copyright infringement, what institutional barriers hinder its enforcement, and what reforms would close the resulting gap. Using a doctrinal method with a comparative element, applying the literal, mischief and contextual rules of interpretation, the article analyses section 24 against the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act, relevant international and regional instruments, and comparative practice in Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana. It finds that section 24 criminalises “violation” of intellectual property rights without defining the term, without cross-referencing the economic rights in section 9(1) of the Copyright Act, and without addressing streaming, hyperlinking, temporary copying, or circumvention of technological protection measures; that enforcement is fragmented across the Police Cybercrime Unit, the Copyright Society of Tanzania and the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority with no coordinating mechanism; and that the resulting uncertainty produces a self-reinforcing cycle in which rights holders rarely complain, and agencies rarely prosecute. The decade-long MwanaFA and AY v MIC Tanzania dispute, Tanzania’s most prominent digital copyright case, illustrates the point starkly: it was litigated entirely as a civil matter, and section 24 was never invoked. The article recommends three linked reforms: legislative amendment to define digital offences and align section 24 with Cap. 218; institutional reform establishing a dedicated cyber-intellectual-property enforcement unit and a statutory coordination committee; and closer alignment with the WIPO Internet Treaties, which Tanzania has not yet ratified.