CAIRO: Egypt's leading telecommunications and technology company the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) is pushing awareness of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) with the country's police. The company held a training session at Cairo's Smart Village for 25 specialized police officers in the hopes of cracking down on intellectual piracy in the country. According to a press release from the company, “this session comes in line with the great concerns that hacking and IPR violations could impact both economic and social levels.” It comes after a series of cyber attacks in recent years have threatened the government's website and ability to function. “Raising the general public awareness of IPR plays a vital role for ICT companies, affects the national economy growth and helps attract foreign direction investments, let alone enhancing innovation,” ITIDA said. Currently, Egypt has done very little to combat intellectual property theft and this has led to a number of cases brought against individuals. The government and ITIDA hope that they will help create a force within the interior ministry to crack down on those perpetrating crimes. Already, Cairo has announced that it is implementing a new effort to curtail software programs piracy, but analysts in the country are not convinced it will be anything more than lip service. “We have seen efforts in the past attempt to go after programs piracy, but little is actually done, because undoubtedly those supposedly tasked with the crackdown are getting the programs on the black market themselves because the real price of these items is simply too high for the average Egyptian,” said Mona Habib, a IPR consultant for the ministry of communications. BM
