Piracy shuts down fourteen Moroccan movie theaters in 2003
Morocco, Economics, 1/22/2004

Fourteen movie theaters were forced to shut down in 2003 because of piracy of films that are subsequently sold at cheap prices, the Moroccan TV channel "2M" reported Tuesday.

No practical measures were taken to fight the illegal copying of films, the same source added.

"A copy of a pirated new film is sold at between 5 and 20 Dhs (US $1 = 8.7 Dhs). It is a flourishing trade for the people who are specialist in downloading films from the internet," the TV channel pointed out.

Answering a question on this phenomenon, communication minister, Nabil Benabdellah, said the crackdown on film piracy is chiefly led by the Moroccan Office for authors rights.

"We are trying to have the support of the concerned parties, particularly local authorities and the interior ministry" to cut film piracy, he went on.

Benabdellah deplored, nonetheless, that "thousands of families currently make a living through piracy" which leads to hesitations over the way to deal with this issue.

Previous Stories:
  FTA negotiations with Morocco expected to be over by end of 2003, Zoellick   (9/15/2003)
  US to concentrate on FTA negotiations with Morocco, US official   (6/19/2003)
  Morocco, US agreed on FTA general guidelines, minister   (6/19/2003)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search