ALKHOBAR, 27 April 2004 — It has been 15 years since the government made the first moves to protect intellectual property in the Kingdom. Despite efforts at educating local businesses, individuals and organizations about the importance of respecting intellectual property rights, serious violations have continued.
In Alkhobar, pirated CDs and DVDs are easily available. Outside Gulf Center on the Alkhobar corniche, expatriates lurk near their cars. The trunks of the vehicles are filled with hundreds of copied movies and software packages, all for sale under SR25. Visitors to the computer shops on King Fahd Street can buy much more than spare parts. Men standing near the shop doorways pitch the latest movies, PlayStation games and computer software. Anything can be had. For example, VCDs of Mel Gibson’s “Passion” were available within two weeks of its release in US cinemas. For regular customers even pornography is on offer.
But it’s not necessary to go to such public locations to engage in a little lawbreaking. In the district where I live, the local dry cleaner is the source for more than clean clothes. While the attendant is making up the list of clothes to be washed, customers can sort through a pile of the latest movies. Discounted phone cards and counterfeit perfumes are also available. If the attendant doesn’t have the titles that you want, just ask and most likely when you return to pick up your clean clothes, the requested DVDs will be waiting. You have his solemn assurance that they are “all original.”
It’s so civilized and convenient. It’s illegal too, but not many people seem to care. In Saudi Arabia we don’t make movies and no video games are created here. We don’t have much computer software developed here either. Of course one of the reasons local developers can’t succeed in the Kingdom is because their intellectual property rights aren’t protected.
Oh, the laws exist, but in the past they weren’t strong enough or enforced effectively. For years the Ministry of Culture and Information has been assigned the duty of protecting information property rights. Unfortunately, the ministry has been and continues to be dependent on other ministries to enforce the regulations which they oversee. It’s a very messy situation and the ministry doesn’t even have enough of its own inspectors to effectively root out major offenders Kingdomwide.
Lacking enough muscle to stamp out violations of intellectual property rights, the Ministry of Information has tried to shame people into compliance.
In fatwa No. 18453 dated 2/1/1417 it is stated that the Permanent Committee for Scientific Research and Ifta found that it is not acceptable to copy the software programs whose owners forbid their copying except with permission from them. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “Muslims on their conditions.” “The property of a Muslim is not permitted except with his approval.” “Whoever gets first to a permissible thing has the right to it,” whether the owner of the software program is a Muslim or a non-Muslim.
This fatwa or legal Islamic opinion means that the physical or intellectual property of others must be respected. It is unacceptable to take and use that property without the owner’s consent. Any use of that property must also be within the limits the owner allows. To engage in copying or otherwise utilizing physical or intellectual property is theft.
Awareness of the illegality of piracy has had a limited effect on halting the practice. Currently, large corporations in Saudi Arabia operate at 90 percent compliance with software licensing regulations. But for small and medium sized companies only 48 percent are in compliance with software licensing. As for consumers, only 10 percent operate their computers with legal software. Even for government organizations, the compliance rate is only 25 percent.
For years, interested governments, companies and industry watchdogs have constantly complained to the Ministry of Information about the government’s lack of success in protecting intellectual property. In recent times the definition of intellectual property has also evolved. An intellectual property is any product of the human intellect that is unique and marketable. It could be an idea, an invention, an expression or literary creation, a name, a business method, an industrial process, a chemical formula, a computer program, a process or a presentation. It was clearly pointed out to the concerned authorities that one of the reasons for the lack of innovation and research in Saudi Arabia is that intellectual property rights are not respected.
Finally, it appears that the government is ready to tackle this issue and perhaps get tough with offenders. New Saudi Arabian Intellectual Property Regulations (Decree M41) are some of the most far reaching in the Gulf region. Under the new regulations offenders may be punished for violating intellectual property rights in any way, including illegal selling, distributing or copying. Under the new law, financial penalties range from SR250,000 to SR500,000. Offending firms or agencies may be closed for periods ranging from four months to permanent closure. All copies and materials used to make copies are to be confiscated. Offenders face possible imprisonment of six months to one year. Offenders may be ordered to compensate the injured party. In addition, the ministry has the right to publicize the offender’s activities with such cost involved to be borne by the offender. The law allows the Ministry of Information to perform inspections at all firms, publishing houses, vendors and other locations to ensure compliance.
While the new laws are already in place, the Ministry of Information has decided to launch an awareness campaign over the next few months to inform residents and companies in Saudi Arabia of the serious penalties they now face for violating intellectual property rights. Symposia are being held to educate the judiciary, business leaders, government officials and other concerned individuals about the updated policies and regulations. Companies are being informed about the need to immediately comply with software licensing. Vendors are being advised to destroy or liquidate stocks of pirated goods.
Organizations and companies focused on intellectual property rights are pleased with the new regulations. “Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are fundamental for any country that wants to be advanced in IT future, and as such ensuring understanding and compliance by the next generation is key,” said Jawad Al-Redha, co-chairman, Middle East, Business Software Alliance (BSA). “Furthermore, the implementation of IPR can benefit a country in more ways than one. By helping to encourage multinationals to enter the country and local software developers to enter the market, local industry accomplishes global credibility and thousands of jobs are created.”
How the new laws will be enforced to best benefit the market is a concern. “We think it is important to use limited resources to go more for the suppliers than the individual shops,” said Tim Stokes, sales and marketing manager, Distributor Markets, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. “Big raids removing hundreds of thousands of CDs from the market are effective. Saudi Arabia is a very successful consumer market for Sony. Hopefully if piracy rates are reduced it will encourage retailers to stock original, quality products and encourage distributors to bring more titles to the market.”
However the laws will be enforced, some are just glad that attention is finally being given to the problem.
“It is a difficult time to try to discuss intellectual property rights when many people in the Kingdom have other serious concerns,” said Abdul Aziz Al-Saab, small to medium business and business solutions manager, Microsoft Arabia. “But protecting intellectual property is really about protecting the future prosperity of Saudi Arabia. That is extremely important. Piracy kills local development and local innovation. We have figures that prove that for every riyal spent on legal software in Saudi Arabia more than ten-fold that amount is generated for the Saudi economy. My No. 1 competition right now is piracy. It doesn’t make me happy that I have to spend my time coming up with programs to counter piracy instead of dedicating my personal and corporate resources to other more fulfilling activities.”
* * *
(Comments to [email protected].)
