A second series of raids on companies suspected of using pirated software was conducted by the Omani Ministry of National Heritage and Culture (MNHC), the Gulf News reported on Sunday.
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) was quoted by the daily as saying that illegal software loaded on 15 PCs at a company was found by the Omani MNHC representatives, which included Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows Office 97, Adobe 5.0, Corel Draw 9.0, Autodesk AutoCad 12, AutoCad 14 and AutoCad 2000.
This raid follows a long campaign earlier this year against pirated software, during which there were many warnings from both the ministry and the BSA, the paper said.
Under the Omani Copyright Law, violators face penalties that can include a fine of 2,000 riyals, seizure of computers and closure of premises, the newspaper said, quoting Ashok Sharma, BSA Middle East director as saying that company officials may even be sent to jail. We applaud the tremendous progress made by Oman to bring down illegal use of computer software." - Albawaba.com
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