Raids result in closure of large stores in Jeddah and launch of nationwide anti-piracy campaign
Jeddah - As part of its campaign to crackdown on satellite TV pirates, the Ministry of Culture and Information in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in cooperation with officials from the Internal Media Department of the Ministry, the local police and personnel from the religious police, recently conducted raids on retail stores in Jeddah illegally selling satellite TV decoders that were used to decrypt Pay TV channels. The raids resulted in confiscation of large volumes of such decoders.
Commenting on the anti-piracy raids, Ahmed Abdul Aziz al-Ghamdi, the Director of the Internal Media Department said that the initiative which led to a crackdown and punishment of violators of intellectual property rights (IPR) in the Kingdom is part of the government's sustained efforts to protect IPR. He urged the general public to cooperate with the Ministry to fight piracy, which is against the religious and legal norms of the country. He also appealed to people to report about anybody known to be illegally selling satellite TV decoders, so as to help create a piracy free society.
The task team assigned by the Ministry in this operation used a fictitious customer during the raids; the sales person offered to sell a decoder that could decrypt Pay TV channels for free, which was enough for the officials to arrest the person. The raids resulted in confiscation of all decoders and immediate closure of the stores, while the store owners were taken in for questioning. Punishment for such offences include heavy fines, in addition to other penalties decided by the Ministry's special committee formed to study such violations.
A software engineer working in KSA pointed out that buyers of these decoders end up being the biggest losers, since these decoders need frequent updates and maintenance. For instance, stores selling these decoders claim that the devices will not require updates, but within months after making the purchase, customers will find that they are not able to view several channels because the TV broadcaster has changed its codes to prevent piracy, which means the illegal decoders will have to be updated again after paying more money. The seller of these devices offers a low price to the customer when the decoder is bought, since he is certain that the customer will return within months for an update. Moreover, customers need to bear in mind that illegally purchased decoders will not get any guarantee or technical support.
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