Fight against media piracy: ANME asks service providers to comply

The National Association of Media and Publishers (ANME), which brings together print and electronic press publishers, has been alerted by several of its members to the practices of certain “press monitoring and reporting” providers that violate Moroccan laws and violate their intellectual property rights and interests.

In fact, these companies sell their clients a “service” that offers in different formats (paper, PDF, e-mail, databases, etc.) full or partial copies of articles published in Moroccan press media.

After carrying out its investigations, ANME was able to confirm the existence of this practice, identified several companies that engage in this illegal activity and gathered a lot of evidence for this.

ANME reminds that it is illegal to copy, scan, reproduce, archive, distribute in any form, by any means, a press article published in paper or electronic format and that it is free access or reserved for subscribers. Articles from the Moroccan press are protected by various legal texts, including the Copyright and Related Rights Act, the Press Act and the Penal Code.

ANME points out that any company or person guilty of this illegal practice may be subject to civil and criminal proceedings.

Furthermore, the clients of these services, private or public companies and organizations or administrations can be considered accomplices.

ANME has given several of these service providers formal notice to stop marketing these “services” and start a process to compensate publishers for years of illegally selling their content. ANME reserves the right to take all necessary measures to defend the legitimate interests of its members, including legal action.

ANME invites service providers and their clients to immediately comply with the law.

Finally, ANME reminds that there are service providers who deliver to their clients a legal press review, including only the title of the newspaper, the title of the article and a reference (date of publication, possible link to the article). These service providers are partners of Moroccan press.