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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 April - 3 May 2000 Issue No. 479 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 April - 3 May 2000 Issue No. 479
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Spiking the copyists
By Niveen Wahish
The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) held its regional Arab conference last week in Cairo, discussing copyrights, related rights and collective management. Although two years have passed since the organisation's last conference "the situation remains the same", said Ibrahim El-Moallem, president of the General Federation of Arab Publishers. Copyright protection, he believes, is sadly deficient in many Arab countries.
WIPO's mandate covers copyright protection of literary and artistic works -- books, music, works of fine art such as paintings and sculptures and technology-based works such as computer programmes and electronic data bases -- as well as creations in the field of "neighbouring rights". Copyright protection is one of the two subdivisions of intellectual property, the other being industrial property -- i.e. the protection of inventions.
Arab countries are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of protecting intellectual property rights as a means of encouraging development said Roberto Castelo, deputy director-general of WIPO.
Nasser Ali Khasawneh, the Business Software Alliance's (BSA) vice president for the Middle East and North Africa, underlined the importance of copyright protection by pointing out that in the US the technology industry is expected to contribute $25 billion in taxes by the year 2005.
According to 1998 BSA figures, the Middle East has the world's highest rates of piracy. Dubai is one of the only countries in the region to have made significant headway in combating the problem.
According to Ghada Khalifa, a member of BSA, rates of piracy in Egypt appeared to have improved, thanks to the efforts of the Ministry of Culture which enforces IPR laws. The relevant figures, though, are only due to be announced at the end of May.
A major problem in enforcing legislation is the ease with which evidence can be destroyed. Software pirates, says Nasser Khasawneh, "destroy the proof of illegal copying at the flick of a switch". It is imperative, therefore, that investigations are conducted without any advance warning.
High software prices have often been cited as a justification for illegal copying. Khawasneh, though, stresses that the IT is a creative industry, and that Arabs should not view themselves solely as consumers. They must, he argues, adopt a new mind-set in which they view themselves as creators whose own production needs protection. Moreover, "there will not be any investments in countries which do not provide protection for intellectual property," he said.
Following the recent sentencing of a construction company for pirating software, the minister of telecommunications and information technology argued that piracy threatens the software development industry in Egypt, preventing local software companies "of limited financial means" from continuing to develop programmes for which they do not receive due compensation.
John-Willy Rudolph, chairman of the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO) prefers to reserve the term "pirate" for instances where the violator uses works without authorisation to make financial gains. Whatever the semantic nit-picking, however, Rudolph believes that "in many developing countries, unauthorised copying constantly undermines and hampers the development of a national publishing industry".
He said that the developing world is becoming a strong opponent of piracy because it is realising that it affects local, and not just imported, works. "Many national copyright industries in developing countries suffer heavily from piracy, sometimes to the extent that they are on the verge of bankruptcy."
Although some participants did not believe that copying textbooks by students should be considered a legal infringement, Rudolph compared it to allowing a student to take a loaf of bread from a store without paying for it. He said that since it is difficult, especially in the developing world, for publishers and authors to act alone the private sector, through the formation of collective management organisations, should increase public awareness and take legal action on behalf of creators and publishers.
