Business Software Alliance (BSA), the international association representing leading software and e-commerce developers worldwide, announced Sunday, August 3, 2003, the winners of the BSA Pan Arab Press Awards competition and felicitated the participants from the media community for their efforts in highlighting issues related to piracy and protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).
The competition awarded three prizes to the best articles and features on piracy to journalists from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Jordan and Qatar. Jawad Al-Redha, co-chairman, Middle East, Business Software Alliance, presented awards to the three winners who were selected from the numerous entries that were received for the competition.
The first prize was awarded to Mohamed Ali Moussa of Al-Khaleej Printing & Publishing, UAE, for his article that highlighted the effects of piracy on consumers and software producers. The article detailed the negative consequences of piracy on the economy.
The second prizewinner, Rania Awad Ibrahim Al-Hindi of Al-Rai Newspaper, Jordan, won the award for her article, which focused on how piracy was impeding the flow of investment to Jordan and the effects of piracy on e-Commerce. Her article also highlighted research findings that stated that 53 percent of global Information Technology (IT) experts are of the opinion that the Arab World is progressing extremely well in its fight against piracy.
The third prize was awarded to Mohammed Kheir Al-Farah, Al-Sharq Newspaper, Qatar, for his article brought to the forefront the correlation between piracy and organized crime according to the international law. It also detailed the $120 million loss incurred by Arab countries due to software piracy. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
