BeoutQ (piracy): Office of the United States Trade Representative puts on Saudi Arabia on watch list

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has placed Saudi Arabia on its priority watch list (along with 10 other countries, see list below) in the 2019 Special 301 Report, on 25/04/2019. The report highlights governments that fail to protect and enforce intellectual property around the world.

The USTR also names the Saudi pirate entity BeoutQ in its other major annual report the "'2018 Notorious Markets List" which identifies websites and physical markets that engage in large-scale piracy or counterfeiting. BeoutQ is one of the 33 websites on the list that was published on 25/04/2019.

"BeoutQ, an illicit service for pirated content whose signal is reportedly carried by Saudi Arabia-based satellite provider Arabsat, continues to be widely available in Saudi Arabia and throughout the Middle East and Europe.While Saudi officials have confirmed the illegal nature of BeoutQ's activities and claim to be addressing this issue by seizing BeoutQ set-top boxes, such devices nevertheless continue to be widely available and are generally unregulated in Saudi Arabia. Saudi…