MOET

Minister of Economy and Trade, Raed Khoury, inaugurated this morning the cultural workshop  organized by US Lebanon Tech Hub  with the cooperation of You Tube at Four Seasons hotel in the presence of You Tube representative, Candice Murray, and the Tech Lebanon Chairman Philippe Ziade through a broad-based participation of artists and concerned persons in the field of intellectual and art production, such as Pierre Daher, Samir Sfeir, Oussama Rahbani, Roula Saad, Marwan Khoury, Mouin Chreif, Joseph Attieh, Nassif Zeytoun, Shiraz, Nina Abdel Malek and many others.

At the beginning, Minister of  Economy and Trade, Raed Khoury, as a sponsor of the workshop, welcomed the honorable guests from You Tube and Believe Digital in Lebanon in addition to all the artists who reveal Lebanon’s civilized and cultural face worldwide and who succeeded to raise their country’s name through their innovative production and by spreading their decent art works. He also welcomed the representatives of US Lebanon Tech Hub thanking them for their cooperative efforts exerted with You Tube and Believe Digital to make this initiative succeed which is of great importance to the Ministry of  Economy and Trade.

In this regard, Minister Khoury said: “our sponsorship for this cultural workshop was the fruit of our awareness regarding the importance of the intellectual and art production protection and its direct impact on the development of several services, touristic and cultural sectors in order to shed the light on the role of the Intellectual Property Department at the Ministry , concerned with preventing the financial exploitation for the intellectual protection as well as many major missions, especially in terms of the registration of all kind of intellectual property rights and related laws enforcement  in addition to other missions such as training and awareness”.

Moreover, Minister Khoury added: “It is no doubt that a new significant challenge arose along with the development witnessed by the digital technologies and the ease of data transfer, exchange and copy, which is the protection of right holders from any availability of unauthorized rights, on one hand and from any infringement and pirating, on the other hand. Consequently, this digital revolution and huge development of the region’s economies should go in parallel with initiatives to prevent infringements and protect  both the copyrighters and their rights”.

In addition, Khoury stressed that the protection shall tackle two levels:

First: To organize cultural conference such as this workshop or the one organized by the Ministry with the participation of WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) to be held on March 27th & 28th entitled: “Sub-Regional Workshop on Policy Mechanism for Supporting Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Use the Intellectual Property System in Their Competitive Strategy”

Second: To update  the laws that ensure data transfer and the availability of innovative works in a regular and legal form through digital media which witness a daily fast development like YouTube, regarding the speed of spread and art promotion.    

Hence, the importance of this legal and cultural workshop resides in coping with the development and coming up with recommendations to build upon in the future, which contribute, in its turn, in transferring the lebanese innovation to the broadest local, regional and international level possible”.

Furthermore, Minister Khoury declared that: “the intellectual property protection is on the top of the Ministry’s priorities given its role as an efficient tool in the economic development and growth given that the protection of the intellectual property is considered a sign of trust and credibility for the Lebanese Government as well as it contributes to attract foreign investments and develop many services  sectors”.

Minister Khoury outlined that the successful policy of the intellectual property resides in the fact of ensuring balance between the innovators and copyrighters on one hand and the benefit of the society from this innovation on the other hand. Here comes the role of the State to provide this balance, intrinsic the innovative activity and launch these creative energies through ensuring protection and care by virtue of national legislations and international conventions in addition to the efficient enforcement of these laws. We make sure that Lebanon preserves its role as a creative and pioneer country in terms of the intellectual property protection laws.

Minister Khoury added: “the Ministry totally support initiatives like the one presented by US Lebanon Tech Hub which we are about to launch and support, especially that it aims to provide an adequate economic environment to exchange experiences between Lebanon and the United States of America for the benefit of the lebanese economy.”

Moreover, the Ministry will pursue its work in relation to updating the relevant lebanese laws and undertakes to exert more efforts to promote awareness and education between both the lebanese innovators and users regarding the use and enjoyment of the intellectual property rights”.

At the end, the Minister welcomed again the audience hoping that this workshop will be of great interest for all of them because the presence of YouTube representatives here in Lebanon is a valuable opportunity that should not be missed today at the workshop.

In her turn, YouTube representative Candice Murray explained the role of YouTube and the digital media revolution in addition to the importance of this workshop for Lebanon.

Then, Mr. Ziade  spoke about the US Lebanon Tech Hub project and its importance in the future in relation to Lebanon and the job opportunities.

Afterwards, the Founder and President of Believe Digital, a leading distributor of digital music in Europe for independent artists and labels, Mr. Denis Ladegaillerie took the floor.

The first session was concluded by Niclas Molinder, Founder of Music Rights Awareness foundation, who outlined the importance of the intellectual property protection.  

The workshop ended at noon during which experts tackled the issue of intellectual property as well as methods of management and protection of YouTube in this regard.

حول الكاتب: الوزير

كان لوريم إيبسوم ولايزال المعيار للنص الشكلي منذ القرن الخامس عشر عندما قامت مطبعة مجهولة برص مجموعة من الأحرف بشكل عشوائي أخذتها من نص. لوريم إيبسوم هو ببساطة نص شكلي، بمعنى أن الغاية هي الشكل وليس المحتوى. ويُستخدم في صناعات المطابع ودور النشر. كان لوريم إيبسوم ولايزال المعيار للنص الشكلي منذ القرن الخامس عشر عندما قامت مطبعة مجهولة برص مجموعة من الأحرف بشكل عشوائي أخذتها من نص، لتكوّن كتيّب بمثابة دليل أو مرجع شكلي لهذه الأحرف.