Gabon’s 2024 copyright ordinance protects a sound recording for only 20 years from the end of the year it was made, and once that term runs out, bars and broadcasters are still charged for playing it, with the money paid into a fund run by the collecting society instead of to the owner. That clock sits in Ordonnance n° 0011/PR/2024 of 26 February 2024, and it matters more now that Gabon’s society is moving to pay by usage.
For any label or artist with Gabonese exploitation, the first-fixation year of a master is now a financial field, not a footnote.
What the ordinance actually says
Four articles do most of the work:
- Article 94: all neighbouring rights (performers, phonogram producers, broadcasters) last 20 years from the end of the year of first fixation.
- Article 77: the songwriter’s economic rights last for life plus 70 years.
- Article 80: works and recordings that fall outside protection still generate royalties, collected by the collective management body and paid, after management fees, into a special fund for cultural and social purposes.
- Article 82: one collective management organisation, “to the exclusion of any other” person or entity, licenses, collects and distributes in Gabon.
Neighbouring rights means the master-side rights that sit alongside the song copyright: the recording and the performance on it. Our neighbouring rights glossary covers the basics.
Twenty years is short. The WTO’s TRIPS agreement, Article 14.5, sets a floor of 50 years for performers and phonogram producers, and Gabon has been a WTO member since 1 January 1995. On the ordinance’s face, a recording first made in 2006 stops earning as a protected master in Gabon on 31 December 2026, while the song on it stays protected for decades.
The pot the clock is cutting into
The sums are small. According to Gabonreview (7 June 2026), culture minister Paul Ulrich Kessany said on 5 June that only 14 cultural actors were registered with BUGADA, the Bureau gabonais du droit d’auteur et des droits voisins, and that 36 million FCFA was available, split:
- 60% to rightsholders
- 10% to social assistance for artists
- 30% to BUGADA’s operations
The minister also said the flat, identical payment to every artist would end: “Celui qui est le plus écouté recevra davantage que les autres” (whoever is most listened to will receive more than the others). He acknowledged a “crise de confiance” between artists and the society.
Note the governance gap. The ordinance caps deductions at 25% only for the private-copy levy (Article 98) and reprography (Article 101), not for the performance royalties bars pay. BUGADA’s July 2024 reorganisation decree (n° 0282/PR/MCJSA) leaves distribution rules to future regulation.
How usage will be measured
On 30 April 2026 in Abidjan, BUGADA director general Gildas Borrys Ndong Nang signed a partnership with Ivorian firm General Management Corporation (GMC-SA), Gabonmediatime reported. Gabonreview describes the mechanism:
- Detection beacons in bars, restaurants and maquis capture audio.
- Audio fingerprinting matches it against a reference database.
- A seven-week pilot, paid for by BUGADA, precedes any national rollout.
Enforcement is rising too: Infos Gabon (20 April 2026) reported that pandemic-era tariff exemptions have ended and that bars, hotels, media and digital platforms need annual licences.
What to do with your catalogue
1. Register the songs, not just the masters
The composition is protected for life plus 70; the recording is not. With 14 registrants, a usage-based split rewards whoever is actually in the system.
2. Audit your first-fixation years
Under Article 94 the original recording year, not the reissue date, sets the clock. Reissues carrying a new (P) year can misstate it. DDEX means Digital Data Exchange, the metadata standard distributors use to deliver releases; keep original release dates accurate in it.
3. Get your audio into the reference set
Fingerprinting only pays tracks it can recognise. Ask BUGADA how works enter the GMC database before the pilot ends.
4. Keep streaming separate
DSP master income flows through your distribution contract, not BUGADA. Itemised, per-territory statements from your distributor show what Gabon actually pays.
For the neighbouring CFA-zone picture, see how Cameroon collects royalties at 12 francs a crate of beer, and how Trinidad and Tobago set different terms for different rightsholders.
