European condemnation of Saudi regime piracy of sports championships
The Saudi regime’s scandals in espionage and piracy are continuing, the most recent of which is the European Union’s condemnation of the Kingdom because of the piracy of “beIN Sports” channels and the theft of sporting championships.
The European Commission issued a report criticizing the Kingdom for the severe damage caused to a number of companies in Europe in the wake of the unprecedented theft of sports programs for two years by the channel, “beoutQ”, and the satellite company “Arabsat”.
The report stated that 13 countries worldwide, the European Union is working to focus its actions on in relation to the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in countries, including Saudi Arabia, which he included, due to complaints by rights holders and European sports broadcast networks, about widespread piracy Broadcasting rights, including the English Premier League, LaLiga and UEFA, and the Qatari group beIN Sport are the main target of piracy.
He added that other sectors have also lodged complaints due to the damages that weakened patent and data protection systems, as Saudi Arabia is one of only two countries that have been added to the list of priority countries, issued by the European Commission every two years, in addition to Nigeria.
The report highlighted serious shortcomings in the protection and enforcement of Saudi intellectual property, due to its global role as a regional country for counterfeit and pirated goods addressed to the European Union, after the communications submitted by stakeholders, and the ineffectiveness of all measures implemented to address what happened.
The report considered that the channel “beoutQ” has provided content owned by sports events organizers and European Union rights holders, to viewers in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, and North Africa, as well as the “old continent”, without any permission to do so.
According to the complaints submitted to the European Union, the Saudi government did not take sufficient steps to stop the violation, despite the satellite broadcast service for “beoutQ”, which was until recently available via the “Badr 4” and Arabsat 4B satellite, which is owned by Arabsat , Partly owned by the government.
The report continued, that the “Bout Q” channel has stopped working since last August, but its devices are widely circulated in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, because it provides illegal access via the Internet, including sports and entertainment content, which causes billions of dollars in losses. For the global sports and entertainment industry.
He added that eight prominent international football federations announced that they were unable to initiate the filing of a copyright infringement case in Saudi Arabia, because they are the judge and opponent at the same time, and refuse to take any legal action, which is not consistent with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Globalism.
The report concluded, that the measures against Saudi Arabia in the World Trade Organization are continuing, especially since a number of governments in the world have condemned the B-Q channel, and Arabsat, after the Saudi government’s refusal of all requests submitted by many rights holders.
