Saudi Copyright Update: Sharing Poems on Social Media Punishable
What Does Saudi Copyright Law Say About Social Media?
RIYADH: Sharing a literary work on social media platforms without the author's permission is a punishable copyright violation, the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) has warned.
A social media post by SAIP says the unauthorized publishing or performance of literary works including poetry is a violation of Saudi Copyright Law that may attract hefty fines and penalties.
While issuing the copyright infringement warning, the Authority alluded to a recent incident of a person performing a poem online for commercial purposes without obtaining the original author's permission.
Penalties for Copyright Violations in Saudi Arabia
A fine of SR 5,000 was imposed on the person who committed the copyright infringement in Saudi Arabia. The Authority also ordered to remove the infringing content from all the social media platforms.
How Saudi Copyright Law Protects Literary Works?
"Using any literary or artistic work without prior approval from its owner constitutes a breach of the Copyright Protection Law,” the authority said. The SAIP also added that committing copyright infringement in Saudi could also attract legal proceedings and sanctions.
Social media users often post poems and literary works on social media platforms unaware of the risks behind such acts.
People naively think posting creative works of others on their personal account as a harmless act. However, the Saudi copyright protection law treats this as a mode of public communication, violating the intellectual property rights of the copyright holder.
The Saudi Copyright Law safeguards original works of authorship such as literary works, computer software applications, photographs, architectural designs etc. Copyright protection in Saudi helps authors prevent other parties from unauthorized reproduction, distribution, and communication to the public.
Copyright protection automatically starts even without registration once the creative work is expressed in tangible form. However, a formal copyright registration provides the righholders with evidence of ownership. Such evidence will help them establish ownership in copyright infringement cases.
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