The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has warned Saudi firms against using pirated products in their business communications with counterparts in the United States, particularly the states of Louisiana and Washington.

“If local firms use pirated software, for instance, in communicating with business partners in Louisiana and Washington states, they would be liable under the Unfair Competition Law (UCL),” Mohammed Al-Dhabaan, BSA representative in Saudi Arabia, said on Tuesday.

He noted that the software piracy rate in the Kingdom was at 51 percent in 2011, although the net effect of the worldwide piracy rate was 42 percent.

This means that half of the programs that users installed were unlicensed last year, according to a BSA Global Software Piracy Study published last year. The commercial value of this piracy in 2011 was SR1.68 billion, up SR128 million from the previous year although the rate dropped marginally by 1 point.

Al-Dhabaan noted that the United States is a very important trading partner of Saudi Arabia. “It is the third largest export partner after Japan and China, accounting for 13.5 percent of overall Saudi exports,” he said.

He added that Saudi Arabia is a market leader, accounting for 19 percent of US petrochemical imports in 2011 and the demand for Saudi petrochemical products is particularly strong with Saudi exports to the US having increased by over 25 percent in the past five years. “It is the highest growth among all nations which the Kingdom competes with, which are Canada and Iraq,” he said.

He noted that Saudi oil exports have been decreasing since 2000 while competing countries such as Brazil, Canada and Russia have seen their oil imports increase over the same period. “Saudi oil which accounted for over 14 percent of total US imports in 2003 accounted only for only around 9 percent in 2010,” he added.

He added that “given the importance of the US as a trade partner to the Kingdom and its competency in petrochemicals, Saudi manufacturers will strengthen their trade ties if they are fully-compliant and have a clean supply chain.”

Al-Dhabaan added that having a clean and good reputation would also allow Saudi oil exporters to regain some of their oil exports to the US.

“With the unfair competition movement gaining momentum in the US, compliant Saudi manufacturers would stand to gain a competitive advantage over other emerging market and gain new businesses,” he said.

He added that additional petrochemical exports to the US would also align well with the Saudi national objective to reduce reliance on revenues from just crude oil exports.

Al-Dhabaan said that although the piracy rate in Saudi Arabia had reduced marginally, the successful cooperation between BSA and the Ministry of Culture & Information's Directorate of Copyright will continue over the coming months to maximize the impact of the awareness programs.

He said the plan is to augment this with a major increase in enforcement and to continue the gradual increase in the overall average of penalties judged by the violation review committee.

He added that governments must continue to take steps to modernize their anti-piracy laws and expand enforcement efforts to ensure that those who pirate software face real consequences. “Piracy is the first enemy and main innovation killer and our efforts will continue to fight piracy as a means to, support the government efforts to create knowledge economy,” Al-Dhabaan said.