The Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization welcomed the deposit of the instrument of accession of Bahrain on February 01, 2007 to the Brussels Convention Relating to the Distribution of Program-Carrying Signals Transmitted by Satellite. The said treaty entered into force in the country on May 01, 2007.
By way of background, the Brussels Convention requires from each contracting state to take the adequate measures in order to prevent the unauthorized distribution on or from its territory of any program-carrying signal transmitted by satellite. The treaty now has a total of 30 contracting member states. Contracting member states from our region include Cyprus (signature: May 21, 1974), Lebanon (signature: May 21, 1974), and Morocco (in force: June 30, 1983).
In line with the above measure, the Bahraini Ministry of Information has recently warned local cable operators against the re-transmission of unauthorized domestic and foreign terrestrial and satellite programming. The purpose of this initiative is to prohibit anyone from intercepting or receiving any cable communications unless authorized by a cable provider. According to the Ministry’s warning, offenders will be subject to strict applications of penalties enforceable under Bahraini Copyright and Related Rights Law no. 22 of 2006 including payment of fines as well as legal prosecution resulting in possible imprisonment.
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