A new Copyright By-law became effective on March 14, 2004 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Okaz Newspaper reported. The new By-law aims at eliminating intellectual property infringements in the Kingdom.
The Copyright By-law incorporates stringent penalties to be imposed on IP infringers. These penalties include financial fines reaching up to 500,000 Saudi Riyals, publishing the infringer’s name on his own expenses in local newspapers, and to financially compensate the right holders, in addition to definite termination of work permits in case the infringer was an establishment.
The New Copyright By-law protects any innovated work, in the literary, artistic or scientific domain, whatever the type, manner of expression, significance thereof. This includes written works such as books, pamphlets, lectures, speeches, sermons, in addition to dramatic or dramatico-musical works, plastic art works, works of drawing, painting, audio-visual works, photographic works, illustrations, computer software, translations, encyclopedias, folklore expressions and others.