Authorities raid facility producing 40% of pirated CDs, DVDs in Jordan

AMMAN — National Library Department (NLD) personnel raided a facility this week that produces some 3,000 pirated CDs and DVDs of games and movies per hour, NLD Director General Mohammad Abbadi said on Thursday.

The facility, located in a residential neighbourhood in east Amman, contained six machines for the production of pirated CDs and DVDs, according to Abbadi.

“The facility produced one pirated CD every five seconds. This is one of the largest raids conducted by the library in cooperation with the Criminal Investigation Department,” he added.

“We believe that about 40 per cent of the pirated CDs and DVDs in Jordan come from this facility,” Abbadi said, noting that more than 1,300 CDs were confiscated as well as the machines, while the owner was referred to court.

This incident increases the number of cases referred to court since the beginning of this year to 333, according to the NLD director, who said more than 40,000 pirated items, including CDs and DVDs of games, movies and software have been confiscated since January 2014.

Software piracy in Jordan dropped by 1 per cent in 2013, and the Kingdom was among five Arab states with the lowest illegal use of unlicensed software, according to a study by the Business Software Alliance (BSA).

Jordan registered a 57 per cent software piracy rating in 2013, compared to 58 per cent in 2011 and 57 per cent in 2009, the 2013 BSA Global Software Survey indicated.

The commercial value of unlicensed software in Jordan amounted to $35 million in 2013 compared to $31 million in 2011, according to the BSA study.

The Jordanian Copyright Law stipulates that it is a crime to download software, music or movies that are protected under the legislation. Offenders face a prison sentence between three months and three years and a fine ranging from JD1,000 to JD6,000.

The NLD has referred more than 4,000 cases of intellectual property rights violations to court since 2000.