One of the leading Saudi Production companies told Al Sharq Al Awsat newspaper that it intends to negotiate, through the internet, with a number of internet site owners which provide, free of charge, the latest Arabic songs on their sites within 24 hours of their entry into the markets. Al Sharq Al Awsat aims to stop this practice which it says results in large financial losses for the company.
The production companies and their offices in the Arab countries are currently forming work teams to negotiate peacefully with the site owners regarding this issue before resorting to courts. The production companies consider that the Internet site owners’ practice to be a violation of the copyright of the companies guaranteed by the rules and regulations in most of the Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia.
Manager of Information Systems at Rotana For Production, Osama Abdul Khaleq, informed Al Sharq Al Awsat yesterday that “the production companies in Saudi Arabia have decided to negotiate with the owners of the sites providing Arabic songs on the internet and demand that they should stop this action, otherwise they would resort to the courts.”
Abdul Khaleq confirmed that the production company’s main offices will deal with the Saudi sites owners, and their branch offices will deal with site owners outside the kingdom.
The internet site owners who broadcast songs on their sites depend on commercial advertisements for revenues which are huge, while the production and distribution companies in Saudi Arabia invest large sums of money in the production of Arab and Saudi songs and need to cover their costs by selling CD’s and cassettes, airing video clips on the satellite stations, and by arranging parties.
