Copyright protection in UAE law in light of recent technological developments

Copyright protection in UAE law in light of recent technological developments

Copyright law is important for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the county aims to be a leading nation in the region and globally by the Golden Jubilee of the Union. The US Chamber’s Global Intellectual Property Center in Washington, DC published in 2015 the intellectual Property Index criticizing the copyright law in the UAE for not dealing properly with piracy over the Internet. This article examines to what extent the UAE Federal Copyright Law No. 7 of 2002 (as amended) deals properly with digital issues in the internet age in the 21st Century. It argues that reforming the UAE copyright law is needed critically to suit the ambitious agenda of the country to be a knowledge-based economy that fosters innovation and creativity in accordance with the UAE Vision 2021. Finally, the paper will also provide suggestions and recommendations to reform the UAE copyright regime to be more responsive to the needs of the country and its citizens in the digital age.

Text in Arabic.
© 2016 Olwan, licensee HBKU Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.