“The Saudi trader could be detained for at least 10 days and fined SR150,000 as per the recommendation of the Violation Review Committee,” Rafeik Al-Okaily, the ministry's director of copyrights, told Arab News yesterday.

He said the Saudi trader was operating in the Saudi capital's Shumaisy district.

“At present, we are also monitoring the operations of another trader in the Batha commercial area,” Al-Okaily said.

Another Saudi trader was apprehended early last month with the coordination of the Dubai-based Arabian Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAA) for dealing in pirated goods. The trader, who was the first to be arrested in the Kingdom's crackdown on pirated products, was sentenced to a 10-day imprisonment and SR150,000 fine, which earned the praise of AAA's chief executive officer Scott Butler who flew in on the day the BOG decision was announced. “The conviction is seen by the AAA as a precedent for merchants to strictly comply with Saudi piracy laws and serves as a deterrent to would-violators,” Butler told Arab News.

Butler also said that in delivering its judgment, the BOG had also quashed doubts about the enforcement of piracy laws in Saudi Arabia, which has recorded the highest piracy rate in the GCC at 60 percent.

The latest arrest came on the heels of the Culture and Information Ministry’s move to take stringent measures against business entities as well as personal computer users who acquire illegal software illegally.

The ministry has authorized Internet service providers, data centers and other regulatory bodies not to offer services to subscribers and PC users until they review their program licenses and are satisfied with the authenticity of the programs.

“The move is to ensure all computer users use authentic and licensed software,” the Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC) said in a press statement.

Piracy has resulted in huge losses to the Saudi economy, with studies indicating that reduction of piracy rates could have potentially yielded $1 billion in gross domestic product (GDP) in the past two years.

The Piracy Law Fear Factor survey earlier commissioned by the AAA and participated in by intellectual property rights holders from the Business Software Alliance (BSA), electronic games industry, pay TV and movie industry, revealed up to 89 percent of respondents believed that owners of businesses engaged in piracy won't get imprisoned in Saudi Arabia.

However, 67 percent of the respondents believed that imprisonment would help solve the problem of piracy in the Kingdom.