The Legal and Political Aspects of Software Piracy in the Arab World

Software piracy has reached an epidemic level in the Arab world. Many countries in the area do not have a modern copyright law, or they do not enforce it. The US and Western countries are putting pressure on Arab countries to introduce and enforce legislations to improve their intellectual property protection. Copyright laws and international treaties such as TRIPS are being introduced to Arab countries as preconditions to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) and get the benefits that come with it. However, the war on terror is negatively affecting the war on software piracy. Many Arab groups are supporting software piracy acts as a retaliation against the US policy in the Middle East