RIYADH — The Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP), in accordance to its competencies, organized an online inspection campaign on websites and platforms that violates intellectual property laws including sites broadcast from outside the Kingdom.

SAIP, in its continuous efforts that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia minimizes violations against intellectual property rights, recently monitored, examined, and analyzed 231 websites that violates Intellectual Property law and have prevented it from being browsed from the Kingdom.

Those detected sites included a host of violations, which are downloading and watching movies and series, directly broadcasting sites of encrypted sports channels, downloading books in PDF format sites, downloading and listening to music sites and all been done without obtaining a prior license or authorization from the right holder.

SAIP has also detected websites that are selling subscriptions for encrypted TV channels through softwares or illicit streaming devices (ISDs) to decrypt the encrypted site for the purpose of displaying materials in illegal ways.

SAIP confirmed that these practices violates the copyright protection law and entail financial penalties and fines that may reach up to SR250,000. In addition to the applied fines, the violation may cause the closure of the site, or the cancelation of the commercial license.

In some cases it can lead to imprisonment of license holder for a period not exceeding six months or defamation at the account of the infringer and removing the infringement.

Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property stresses that it will not tolerate all those who violate the laws and regulations, nor will it condone these violations, and calls upon citizens and residents to support those efforts to respect intellectual property rights.

This they can do through communicating via its official channels: direct customer service number (920021421), via E-mail saip@saip.gov.sa or through social media official account @SAIPKSA and contribute to reporting directly to everyone who does work that violates the laws and protection of intellectual property. — SPA