ALKHOBAR, 9 December — As we approach the holiday season, my inbox is stuffed with messages from friends near and far. One note came from Timothy Barger, who compiled this past summer’s best-selling English language book in the Kingdom, "Out in the Blue: Letters from Arabia 1937-1940."
He wrote, "Outintheblue.com has been revamped with the addition of much new material as well as a page of Holiday Gift Ideas including the Classic Aramco Hat, a few books about Arabia and the terrific prints from Karl Hoke which you might enjoy seeing."
So click on over folks. The new photos are spectacular and you just might find the perfect holiday gift for that hard to please person in your life.
Last Wednesday a most interesting fax arrived at my desk. It was from NCR and it informed me that: "Rajhi Commercial Foreign Exchange (Rajhi CFE) and NCR Corporation have announced the rollout of a major network infrastructure project, which will enable Rajhi CFE to complete its transition from providing foreign exchange services to becoming a major retail bank."
It appears the Rajhi CFE is transforming its 120 foreign exchange outlets in the Kingdom into bank branches. NCR claims that Al Rajhi CFE recently received approval from SAMA for such a move. In June 2001, Rajhi CFE signed with NCR to provide it with a complete network design and implementation together with security systems, network management and ongoing maintenance. Core infrastructure rollout began in September 2001 and finished in November. Network analysis and full implementation of the security system is now under way. Surprisingly, STC managed to install the data links for the wide area network (WAN) ahead of schedule.
"Rajhi CFE is an organization in transformation: we are fundamentally recreating our business, changing from a provider of foreign exchange to consumers, to a provider of a full set of banking services," said Souheil Salloum, IT Manager, Rajhi CFE. "Saudi Arabia is an extremely competitive market with many strong players. We needed to create our new banking and information systems infrastructure in a very short time, but we had to be sure they would run flawlessly from the first day we open our doors as a bank. That is why we brought in NCR. They are a global leader in secure networking infrastructures in the banking sector. They are also a Saudi company with long experience in the particular conditions of this country, with offices wherever we need them."
NCR’s solution is based on end-to-end Cisco networking technology which will provide multiservice connectivity between 130 Rajhi CFE locations in the Kingdom, with high-speed access for about 800 users. Cisco’s networking technology was chosen because it natively supports voice over the data network through Cisco AVVID (Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data). The installation will be supported through NCR’s 18 offices across the Kingdom.
Now to a little news from the anti-piracy front. Last month the Business Software Alliance (BSA) lost a highly publicized court case in Dubai. BSA is the group which supports software vendors with its antipiracy operations. Their antipiracy fight took one step back when Dubai’s Court of Cassation ruled against BSA in favor of the defendant, National Engineering Company. The court was upholding the ruling of a lower court and its judgment has sparked a furor in the Emirate, which has had strong copyright protection legislation on the books for years.
National Engineering Company was alleged to be using unlicensed software on PCs at its operations. While the local Ministry of Information stated that the software use was illegal, an outside technical expert provided information which cast "reasonable doubt," in the mind of the judge.
BSA Regional Director Jawad Al-Redha and legal expert Essam Al-Tamimi, managing partner in Al-Tamimi & Company, have described the outcome as "the wrong application of the law."
"I believe that, by relying on a report prepared by an IT specialist who is neither familiar with the application of the copyright law nor the UAE’s obligations under international treaties, such as TRIPS and the Berne Convention, the court has not applied the law in a proper manner," said Al-Redha.
Despite the court ruling, since mid-November, BSA has increased its antipiracy activity. It has launched a "Great Opportunity" campaign, which allows companies that are using unlicensed software to contact BSA in order to start legalizing their applications without facing penalties. According to BSA, the majority of companies who have responded to the campaign belong to the general trading segment (31 percent), followed by industries (26.4 percent), construction consultants (15 percent), construction companies (13.5 percent), electronics and hardware suppliers (10.1 percent) and training institutes and graphics design companies (4 percent).
Many of these firms are small to medium-sized businesses and that is pleasing to BSA because these are the businesses which represent the largest market segment for software resellers in the UAE. Their proper adherence to copyright laws is therefore essential to the reinforcement and growth of the local IT market. The UAE boasts the lowest piracy rate in the Middle East at 44 percent, yet losses resulting from piracy were estimated at more than 19,750,000 dirhams in the year 2000.
"Companies should understand that the software industry is based on the licensing principle, this is how software manufacturers make their money and that is how they keep funding their R&D to give us continuously improved high-tech tools. So, it is normal for every software user to contribute to the survival of this industry by paying for the tools that he is using, this is the logical, ethical and legal way of doing things" said Al-Redha.
The legalization campaign ends on Jan. 2, and the MOI and BSA plan to resume raids and legal action against illegal software users after that date. Since single rulings in Dubai’s courts do not set precedents, the November decision in favor of the National Engineering Company will not affect future cases. It does mean that cases will continue to be fought on an individual basis and the win by National Engineering might encourage more firms to go to court and take their chances. This could seriously clog the judicial system and set back the trend toward licensing. Even worse might be the effect on foreign investment. A strong stance on the protection of intellectual property has attracted many international IT firms to Dubai. Further investment from that sector might be put on hold until the government of Dubai strengthens the legislation and implements clearer regulations. At this time, the MOI is working to amend the 1992 copyright laws to incorporate international treaty obligations and to help in future interpretations of copyright laws.
As we are in the final days of the holy month, I took a quick look out on the Internet to see what was being offered in the way of Haj and Umrah packages. Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Haj has launched its online service "Bab Al Umra" in conjunction with the Al-Alamiah Internet Company. I couldn’t quite figure out what this site is about except that it appeared to be targeted more at Haj and Umrah operators rather than individuals booking tours. It did have a link to a site explaining the Haj rituals but overall the site was disappointing. Perhaps it is early days yet and time will help the site’s development.
Elaf Tours based in Jeddah has a beautiful site for their Religious Tour Services. They claim to be "well-equipped with modern transport facilities and all amenities to help pilgrims perform their rituals with peace of mind." But I couldn’t find tour package prices anywhere, just the maddening phrase "coming soon." Another local tour operator, Qasswa for Haj and Umrah, has a site that looks beautiful but there’s really no information on it at all. The pages for Qasswa tour quotes all read that the package information will be posted soon. When is soon?
If one takes a look at the sites for Haj and Umrah operators from outside the Kingdom, many of these companies have full price quotes and it is easy to compare between them on the cost issue — as of yet there is no regulatory agency to provide a quality certification. From what I’ve heard, finding a needle in a haystack is easier that locating a five-star Haj operator. In any case, Saudi Arabia keeps talking about doing tourism. Our local agencies have been handling Haj and Umrah visitors for decades. Why can’t the information offered at their websites at least be on par with what is being made available by foreign tour operators?