The Omani Ministry of National Heritage and Culture is stepping up its enforcement activities against traders and users of illegal software in the Sultanate.
During the month of June raids where conducted on two different shopping malls in an aim to locate retailers of illegal software.
Initially all software companies had been forewarned regarding implementation of the Copyright Laws. Only repeat offenders were raided. The number of raids since the beginning of the year has exceeded 24 raids.
The ministry also raided an engineering office which had loaded copies of Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Office 97, Office 2000 and Autodesk AutoCad 13, AutoCad 14 and AutoCad 2000. The company was issued an official warning prior to the raid.
The Omani Ministry of National Heritage and Culture is working actively with several parties including Business Software Alliance in an aim to improve the protection of Copyright and create a healthy software market.
It is believed that by creating a healthy environment local and international investment in the IT sector will increase.