A seminar titled "Copyright Law ... A Look to the Future" was inaugurated on July 5, 1999 in Jordan under the sponsorship of Dr. Hamza Haddad, the Minister of Justice. In his inaugural speech, Dr. Haddad said that Jordan is committed to the implementation of Intellectual Property Protection and that the Ministry is well aware of its importance. He added that the government will amends its laws to comply with the International Conventions and the TRIPs Agreement, and that the judicial system has issued many decisions on intellectual property disputes.
The seminar discussed how intellectual property protection balances the rights of creators of intellectual property rights and the rights of the public to use such property fairly.
It also explained that it is illegal to use the works of others without permission and that intellectual property laws lay down the rules for exploitation rights and fair use.
Mr. Jawad Rida, the Director of Copyright Protection Department of the United Arab Emirates, explained the Emirati experience in implementing and enforcing the copyright law. He said that copyright piracy, especially in the computer software field, has been reduced to 50% during the past five years.
Major Kamal Al-Karaki, the Head of Computer Crimes Section of the Jordanian Public Security Directorate, presented his speech on combating computer crimes. He said that losses due to computer crimes are big and expensive and that some of them are serious enough to threaten the national security of countries.
Major Al-Karaki explained that computer crimes are targetting copyrights in computer networks and programs. The government showed interest in combating computer crimes by establishing a Computer Crimes Section to deal with this tricky situation. The section follows up latest developments in computer crimes commission and evidence gathering. He pointed out that computer crime tracking is difficult because it is an across-the-border activity, which stresses the importance of international cooperation in combating computer crimes.
Foremost among the participants were judges, lawyers, law enforcement officers and interested people from both the public and private sectors