RIYADH, 29 April 2004 — Nine persons, most of them expatriates, have been detained by the authorities on charges of piracy of pay-TV channels. They are allegedly guilty of having distributed pay channels in contravention of the Ministry of Information’s regulations.
The information was made public at a symposium organized by the ministry on copyright laws and related aspects. Culture and Information Minister Dr. Fouad Al-Farsy stressed the need to protect original works and penalize copyright violators.
He said the new laws guaranteed protection to various forms of intellectual property such as literary, scientific and artistic works, computer programs, DVDs and designer clothes.
The minister said the new copyright laws were proving to be helpful in negotiations to endorse international agreements including Saudi Arabia’s accession to the World Trade Organization. The new law, replacing the old Copyright Law of 1990, consists of 27 articles for violations.
Jamal Ahmad Majdali of Arab Digital Distribution Co. said the penalty for those arrested could go as high as SR500,000 in addition to imprisonment. “In fact, we have to raise awareness among people and institutions in this country in order to curb piracy.” He pointed out that many commercial entities such as housing compounds, hotels and clubs were illegally distributing satellite pay-TV channels.
Referring to software piracy, Abdul Kader Al-Fantookh, a professor of computer science at King Saud University, said it had been reduced and is falling still further as a result of the Kingdom’s new copyright laws.
