Um Kulthum’s Intellectual Property Rights Blatantly Violated

Published October 23rd, 2000 - 03:00 GMT

The Egyptian market has been saturated with a large number of albums, bearing the titles of various Um Kulthum songs. However, the credits list unknown musicians and composers as the owners of these songs, although the songs were composed years ago when Um Kulthum was still alive.

According to Al Ahram newspaper, the album includes other songs by the Egyptian composers Shawqi Ismael and Abdul Aziz Amin. This instigated an immediate complaint on the part of the two artists against the unknown company, which released the tapes.

Um Kulthum songs included in the album are Jaddat Hubbak Leih (Why Did You Renew Your Love), Fakirouni (Remind Me) and others.

On his part, Amin told Al Ahram that “it is sad that our great heritage is subjected to such a violation in broad daylight; whereby those who deal in music distribution are taking advantage of the traffic in the business.”

Meanwhile, Ismael stated that he was definitely pursuing his rights in the matter, both literary and financially. He added “the violation of the rights of others must be severely punished and I will wait for the results of the investigations conducted by the Writers’ and Composers’ Organization in this matter.”

Egypt is one of the few Arab countries that have recently adopted the implementation of Intellectual Property Rights. – Albawaba.com.