The Dubai Court of Cassation has ruled in favor of the defendant in the case brought against National Engineering Company by the Business Software Alliance (BSA). The ruling flies in the face of previous judgments issued in Abu Dhabi this year, where two companies have both been found guilty of violating the UAE’s law on the protection of intellectual works and rights of authors.
“The judgment is neither founded upon nor supported by legal precedent in the UAE,” commented BSA’s Middle East regional director Jawad Al-Redha. “I believe that, by relying on a report prepared by an IT specialist who is neither familiar with the application of the copyright law, nor the UAE’s obligations under international treaties, such as TRIPS and the Berne Convention, the court has not applied the law in a proper manner,” Al-Redha added.
“It is clear from the law that reproducing computer software that belongs to somebody else is simply and clearly against the law in the UAE,” said Essam Tamimi, manager partner in the Al-Tamimi & Company law firm. “We have seen similar cases taken through to prosecution this year in Abu Dhabi, with judgments awarded against both companies found violating the law: there is a clear precedent and so we are confident that at least this judgments will not be used as a precedent by lower courts.”
The judgment, although not a precedent for other courts in the UAE, raises questions regarding the interpretation of the law. An IT expert, consulted by the judge, gave the opinion that copying software was the same as reading a book: no copyright is violated by the loan of a book by its owner. “This way of viewing copyrights as they apply to computer software is very worrying to us, as it must be to Dubai’s technology industry in general,” said Al-Redha. “This judgment stands against the many moves that Dubai has taken to become a regional technology hub, and raises very real questions regarding the technical expertise available to the judiciary in Dubai.”
“We believe that, in this judgment, the court erroneously misinterpreted the provisions of the Copyright Law,” said Al-Tamimi. “We are lucky in that the cases we have seen through to successful judgments in Abu Dhabi set a very clear precedent that the copying and use of multiple copies of software within a single company is illegal unless that company purchases licenses to the number of people using the software.”
The UAE’s copyright law (number 40/1992) defines reproduction as ‘producing one or more copies of a literary, artistic or scientific work in any way including audio-visual recording’ (article 1). The law further defines protected works under the law as ‘Cinema, television and radio works, original audio-visual works and computer software’ (article 2, paragraph 2:g).
The rights of the author of a work are defined by article 9 of the law: ‘Only the author may decide the publication of his work, determine the means of publication and exploit it in the manners specified by him. No person, except the author, may exercise such rights without a written permission attested by him or his authorized representatives.’
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is an international organization representing leading software and e-commerce developers in 65 countries around the world. Established in 1988, BSA has offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia. The BSA’s efforts include fighting software piracy, educating computer users about software copyrights and advocating public policy that fosters innovation and trade opportunities. — (menareport.com)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
