Copyrights can be protected under the Copyright and Authorship Protection Law No. 40 for the year 1992. The Law was implemented as of August 30, 1994.
For obtaining protection, copyrightable works will have to be deposited with the Ministry of Information and Culture. Protection is granted to authors of literary, artistic and scientific works of whatever the value or kind or purpose or way of expression. Generally, protection is provided for the works whose means of expression is writing, sound, drawing, image, motion pictures, creative titles or computer software. Translation of original works is also protected.
The duration of the protection is for the lifetime of the author plus 25 years after his death or 25 years from the date of publication in the cases of cinematographic works, works of corporate bodies, works published for the first time after the death of the author. The validity period of photographic works is 10 years from the date of publication.
The Law reserves the right to allow reproducing protectable works by means of photocopying without obtaining the author's permission by public libraries, non-commercial documentation centres and educational, cultural and scientific institutions, provided that the number of copies so reproduced is limited to their needs and not detrimental to the interests of the author.
Enforcing authority is the officers with judicial police powers selected on the strength of a decision by the Minister of Justice in coordination with the Minister of Information and Culture. An unauthorized publication of an author's work of art is penalized by imprisonment and/or a fine not less than 50,000 Dirhams. A publisher who contravenes the authors' instructions through unauthorized addition, omission or modification shall be punished by imprisonment and/or a fine not less than 10,000 Dirhams.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property Bulletins
For further information you make also like to view the Intellectual Property Bulletins published monthly by Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property - IP Bulletins