Copyright Misappropriation in Saudi Arabia - Research Paper Example

Name: University: Instructor: Date: Copyright Misappropriation Saudi Arabia I. INTRODUCTION In 2014, 22 websites were blocked by the Saudi Arabia’s culture and information ministry for copyright as well as piracy infringement. This is after the concerned parties complained to the ministry about the websites, especially movie-swapping sites (Toumi). In the last few years, Saudi Arabia has experienced a remarkable business growth to an extent of being recognised by the World Bank as a top performer. A number of initiatives have been undertaken by the Saudi government to facilitate the protection of Intellectual property rights (IPRs), particularly copyright. For this reason, the ‘General Department of Copyright’ was established by the ministry of Culture and Information with the goal of managing copyright protection (Deeb 15). The department takes part in protecting computer programs and artistic works, investigating and controlling, as well as training and public relations. Software piracy is prevalent in Saudi Arabia, and this can consequently bring irreversible damage to the country’s role in advancement of global technology, intellectual property reputation as promoters as well as protectors, and economic growth in certain industries. Therefore, Saudi Arabia should take measures so as to intervene and stop copyright infringement in the country. Copyright and its global problems brings about a significant barrier to Saudi Arabia government, therefore, the research paper seeks to highlight the problem of copyright misappropriation in Saudi Arabia provides solution to counter these problems. In this case, the paper will be divided into six sections, whereby Section II will provide a summary of copyright history, summarise the existing laws that seeks to reduce copyright infringement, and examine the current state of these laws. Section III will argue about copyright misappropriation by showing how piracy has become a major problem in Saudi Arabia while section IV will argue about the copyright laws in Saudi Arabia. Section V will argue about the preventive measures/strategies that can be espoused by Saudi Arabia so as to reduce misappropriation of copyrights. Section VI will conclude by arguing that if the Saudi government anticipates improving the protection of copyrighted works, the country must take the necessary and accessible steps so as to limit copyright infringements. II. BACKGROUND A. History Copyright law history begins with the early monopolies as well as rights that were granted to book printers with the Statute of Anne of 1710 being the first world’s copyright law. When books became cheaper, faster, and easier to make as well as distribute in North America and Europe, the need for improved protection for the authors increased; thus, creating the need for international copyright standards that are uniform. At first, copyright law were only applicable to books’ copying, but with time derivative works and translations became subject to copyright. Currently, copyright covers a number of works, which includes computer programs, sound recordings, photographs, paintings, and so forth. Nowadays, the copyright laws at national level as evidenced in Saudi Arabia have been standardised through regional and international agreements like the European copyright directives as well as the Berne Convention. B. Laws Being an Islamic nation, Saudi Arabia abides by the traditional Shariah law, which uses the Sunnah and the Qur’an to derive laws. Besides that, Saudi Arabia uses international policies as well as laws in the country. With view to international laws against copyright infringement, the country is party to the Copyright Law (1989), the Patent Law (1989) as well as the Trademark Law (1984). Even though Saudi Arabia is a party to the Patent Law, a patent takes approximately six years to be reviewed as well as issued upon approval (Aljabre 1517). Saudi Arabia became a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as well as Universal Copyright Convention (UCC) in its attempt to become a World Trade Organisation (WTO) member. The country strictly adheres to the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPs) as required by WTO. C. Current state of laws In Saudi Arabia, it is a common rule that any work that is copyrighted is protected by the exiting copyright laws. Imperatively, the authors or creators of the works do not need formalities such as registration for their work to be protected. Still, Saudi Arabia does not have specific or clear copyright policies. Since 2004, the country has been Berne Convention member, which is concerned with literary artistic works protection (Khan 192). Copyrighted works that can enjoy protection are only those which adhere to Saudi regulations and laws as well as Sharia as stipulated by Saudi Copyright Law (article 18(3)). In Saudi Arabia, copyrighted works are registered by Ministry of Culture. III. COPYRIGHT MISAPPROPRIATION A. Main Problems According to IIPA (376), Saudi Arabia’s enforcement system is amongst the most corrupt in the world because the on-going raids are yet to stop piracy on copyrighted works in the country. Besides that, right holders get little information concerning raids, are not allowed to collaborate with the authorities in identifying as well as cataloguing the product that are seized during the raids, and cannot validate seized items ultimate disposition. Regrettably, results from the judiciary on cases associated with copyright infringement have never been made public while the imposed penalties are non-deterrent and very low. This can be evidenced by the fact that the pay television services are still being redistributed illegally devoid of authorization. Even though a number of raids have been carried out by the Ministry of Information that have resulted in confirmation of smart cards’ illegal redistribution, the pirates are yet to be punished. Furthermore, Book piracy is still a key challenge in Saudi Arabia. Piracy penalties have been strengthened by the Saudi copyright law, and there is hope that judicial and administrative system will become transparent. Regrettably, Saudi copyright law does not meet the TRIPS Agreement minimum standards as well as those of the WIPO ‘digital’ treaties. Furthermore, musical works as well as sound recordings are not protected by the copyright law adequately, as evidenced by the prevalence of piracy in the country. B. Optical Disc and Software Piracy Without doubt the piracy level in Saudi Arabia is very high. In this case, optical discs (Compact discs, video compact discs, digital versatile discs, CD-ROMs as well as ‘burned’ recordable compact disc (CD-Rs) that have copyrighted materials can be accessed easily in Saudi Arabia; the retailers are selling pirated music that have been imported from Indonesia as well as Pakistan. Besides that, console-based games are almost 90 per cent pirate while nearly 75 per cent of PC games are pirated. These pirated works are openly vended in souqs as well as retail markets, and are imported from Malaysia (for console-based videogames) as well as Pakistan and Russia (for PC games). A number of retailers sell PC games that are legitimate, but majority are selling PC games that are pirated, which is a copyright infringement. The Saudi authorities have burned some games because of the content concerns, but ironically they are openly vended by pirates across the kingdom. The number of pirated software is staggering as compared to that of pirated music CDs. The end-user piracy in Saudi Arabia has become a key problem for all Saudi Arabia’s enterprises. Even though the License Certification Program has been implement where businesses have to prove that the software they are using are legitimate and not pirated for them to retain their business licenses, the problem is still severe. While most government agencies as well as departments are expected to use legitimate software, some are still using illegal software copies. This is attributed mainly by the intricacy of the procurement procedures as well as inadequate resources allocation of for acquisition of software. According to IIPA (373), the growing number of pirated software qualifies Saudi Arabia be included in the United States Trade Representative (USTR) watch list because it has failed to protect successfully or sufficiently the intellectual property rights. C. Book and Internet Piracy Piracy has created a major obstacle to Saudi Arabia publishing market since pirates have made learning material, textbooks as well as other materials more accessible and at cheap prices. Most of the pirated books are not imported, but rather produced locally. Even though numerous universities, particularly in the Western, Eastern and Central Provinces have employed regulated purchase practices, but some universities are using pirate photocopies instead of purchasing legitimately. The government has done little to regularise how books are purchased at institutions of higher learning. Piracy levels are still higher because of the increased number of illegal printing and photocopying in Saudi Arabia. Internet piracy in Saudi Arabia, specifically, peer-to-peer sharing as well as download of copyrighted materials through the online platforms is increasing progressively despite the fact that the Internet is strictly controlled by the government. Bust still, copyright infringement through Internet in Saudi Arabia is still at its early stages. IV. COPYRIGHT LAWS A. Saudi Arabia Copyright Law The Saudi Arabia Copyright Law was issued in 2003 in accordance with Royal Decree No. M/41 and the law’s Implementing Regulations were published on 4th June, 2004 on the Um-Al-Qura (the Official Gazette) and became operational on 2nd August, 2004. The copyright law offers protection to the creators as well as authors expressing their art works in computer software, photograph, sound, writing, motion pictures as well as drawing. The authors and creators are offered protection for lifetime and five decades subsequent to their death. The copyright law covers every intellectual work regardless of whether they are artistic scientific or literary. Besides that, through the international conventions (those that Saudi Arabia is a member state) offer protections to foreign intellectual works. The country’s copyright law outlines strict penalties (such as financial fines, closure of establishments that infringe copyrighted materials and imprisonment) that should be imposed on people infringing copyrighted materials. Hitherto, Saudi Arabia has no copyright registration procedures. , but distribution of computer programs or printed materials can only take place after the Ministry of Information approves them. In this case, it becomes challenging for international distributors unless they have a local distributor who can help them get the needed approval in Saudi Arabia. B. The Law Compatibility The Saudi Arabia copyright law according to IIPA (378) is TRIPS-Incompatible; therefore cannot offer protection to musical works as well as sound recordings. In view of this, it is without doubt that the law is a step backward, especially in terms of sound recordings. The implementation of the copyright law led to increased criminal penalties, whereby copyright infringement can attract a fine of $66,670 US dollars as well as six months prison term. The recidivists get double the fine or jail term of one year. The law is TRIPS-compatible in terms of Enumerated Exclusive Rights. TRIPS deficiencies that exists in the Saudi Arabia copyright law includes; retroactivity, non-deterrent penalties, protection of musical works as well as sound recording, no provisions concerning border enforcement, seizure provisions, and no ex parte civil searches. C. The Related Issues The Saudi Copyright law’s has failed to adequately manage sound recordings protection, and the country has been reluctant to recognise musical works protection for reasons associated with religion. Even though the term ‘audio works; is mentioned in the law, many assume that sounds recordings have been protected under the ‘audio works’. Due to the country observance to the UCC, foreign sound recordings have been protected as ‘works’. Still, License Certification Program was introduced by the Ministry of Information as an attempt to reduce software piracy in the country’s enterprises. The Saudi Arabian government in 2012 introduced the Unfair Competition Law with the intention of promoting equality amongst businesses by promoting sales of legitimate software; thus, cutting the financial edge of companies using pirated software. Even though, the actions espoused by the Saud Arabia government to reduce copyright infringement is very visible, piracy is still prevalent. V. SOLUTIONS A. Increase Raids Copyright misappropriation can be reduced through increased raids as well as imposition of fines and ensuring establishments that conduct illegal activities are completely closed. The number of raids should be increased specifically on storage areas, retail establishments, duplication sites as well as distribution hubs. Evidently, most of the pirate materials are imported; therefore, the Saudi authorities should ensure that the pirate imports are intercepted by first improving the country’s customs enforcement program. Besides that the government should the procurement practices of books at the universities and colleges are regulated so as to make sure that piracy of copyrighted materials, especially books are reduced. B. Increase Transparency The government of Saudi Arabia is very secretive on how they handle copyright cases after raids; but to reduce copyright misappropriation they should increase transparency. In this case, transparency can be increase by giving the Breach Review Committee (BRC) not just to determine copyright infringement, but also to impose penalties as well as jail terms for the violators. Individuals found guilty of misappropriating copyrighted materials should be shamed publicly and their business license should be revoked. Importantly, the mechanisms of reporting used by BRC with regard to on-going proceedings as well as outcome should be made transparent through regularisation. Improved transparency will facilitate the compensation of the right holders as required by the copyright law for damage attributed to the infringements. C. Strengthen the Laws A number of actions must be taken by Saudi Arabia so as to strengthen the laws surrounding copyright. In order to overcome piracy as well as consumption of pirated materials, the government should introduce new laws that will facilitate authentication of all products made locally and also those that have been imported. Besides that, the government have to strictly adhere to the international regulations that seek to curb copyright infringements. Through Internet censorship the government can successfully prevent people from buying pirated works such as software from the online platforms. The websites that are that infringe the existing laws should be banned. The government should also introduce filtering software, whereby every webpage request will be directed to the Internet Services Unit. This will help the government to easily identify and blacklist websites that allow users to download pirated works black. VI. CONCLUSION In conclusion, it has been argued that if the Saudi Arabian intends to be successful in protecting intellectual property, necessary steps must be taken to reduce piracy as well as infringement of copyrighted materials. As mentioned in the paper, the current Saudi copyright law focuses more on penalties, but there is need for transparency in both judicial and administrative system. The law has failed to meet the TRIPS Agreement minimum standards, especially with regard to protection of sound recordings. The problems discussed ranging from software piracy to book piracy can be solved by increasing raids, transparency and strengthening the existing laws. Undeniably, the Saudi government has the knowhow and means of combating copyright infringement. Imperatively, the government must enforce new laws to curb while the cultural understanding with regard to copyright must be shifted so as to coincide with the adapted legal understanding. In consequence, Saudi Arabia will benefit politically, socially, and economically. Work Cited Aljabre, Abdulaziz. "Understanding Software Piracy in Saudi Arabia and the Need for Change." Journal of Emerging Trends in Computing and Information Sciences 3.11 (2012): 1516-1520. Deeb, Salah. Copyright Protection in Saudi Arabia. Law Update. Riyadh: IP/IT department, 2004. IIPA. "SAUDI ARABIA - IIPA." Special Report. 2004. Khan, M Salman. "Saudi Arabia: Anti-counterfeiting 2010 ." World Trademark Review (2010): 191-194. Toumi, Habib. 22 sites blocked in Saudi Arabia over copyrights issues. 3 April 2014. 29 January 2016. . Read More