Disc Piracy Seizures Up 37%

DUBAI Seizures of pirated discs in the UAE have increased by 37 per cent in the first six months of 2007, compared to 2006, said the Arabian Anti-Piracy Al-liance (AAA).

A total of 144,413 discs were confiscated from street vendors till June – up from 105,050 in the same period last year.

"Throughout the Gulf, street vendors have been linked to organised crime," said Ola Khudair, AAA’s regional manager of government relations.

Khudair said a initiative suggested to Dubai Municipality would force building watchmen to refuse access to vendors and inform the police.

"The campaign has been successful, but now we have to depend on consumers to bar these vendors," said Khudair.

We have to depend on consumers to bar these vendors. Ola Khudair

Juma Obaid Aleem, Director of Censorship at the National Media Council, one of the architects of the Authors Rights Law introduced in 2002, said: "When there was an increase in the number of street vendors and complaints increased, we mobilised a workforce consisting of the Ministry of Information and Culture, Dubai Police, Dubai Public Prosec-ution, Immigration, Customs, and the Department of Eco-nomic Development."

The Dubai Municipality announced that it nabbed 157 street vendors in June, and seized 3,106 counterfeit products, 7,857 pirated DVDs and 81 pornographic movies.

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