The Arab World’s status in Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) legislation and enforcement was the topic of a heated discussion during the recent 4th annual IPR Forum in Morocco, with the best practices, latest trends and future strategies of IPR and software piracy prevention debated by senior industry representatives. The forum also discussed the progress made by the Arab World in terms of IPR protection, calling for stronger partnerships between the public and private sectors in anti-piracy and counterfeiting efforts. Said Alastair de Wet, Business Software Alliance (BSA) South Africa Chairman:
“The gains we have made in fighting piracy can only be sustained through the highly committed and combined efforts of governments, corporate and individual users. I believe that awareness on the negative effects of software piracy, in terms of financial losses, data corruption and systems damage, should be motivation for more people to take stronger courses of action against IPR violators”.A recent BSA study has shown that concerted anti-piracy efforts in the Middle East and Africa have been particularly effective in controlling software piracy rates, which dropped in 19 of 26 countries. The support of particular governments, such as Morocco, has been cited as a key factor for this positive development, as a direct result of its strong IPR legislation.
See also Afro-IP post here on BSA-IDC report on South Africa
