Why are pirated movies and software being sold openly in riyadh in the computer complex in olaya?

is that area exempt from international copyright laws? it is part of uptown, and i saw thosands of programs and movies sold at $2 a cd

You may have noticed that they sell them off of temporary tables, rags laid on the hoods of cars and the sidewalks as well as when you drive into the computer market, you'll be approached while driving by many people with a nearby stash of CD's and carry a list of applications and movies.. They're not able to sell them inside of the shops because they'll be closed.

The police try and control them with surprise appearances with a few bus loads of cops and some normally dressed civilians and then fill those buses with the ones they capture and confiscate the goods.

They have lookouts at the corners and they do recognize some of the usual faces of the copyright people from the ministry of information and warn the others to run away before they could be caught.

It'll take time to get rid of the problem completely as the efforts started a few years ago to control it and compared to back then, this is conservative.

SAR 5 each.

In Qateef we have Souq Wakef it's cheaper than Olaya.
and u will find anything u want there

They are sold everywhere. You can find quality copies movies at SafeWay

You are right, there are 2 little shops in the Olaya 1 centre which sells pirate software and games (good ones as well). I think this is because there is no real law enforcement against it. Police will remove any nomad stalls but leave most of the others.

Also KSA has strong censorship on everything, so no one would really wait 3/4 years for the officialy othorised copies t be sold as legal originals in shops because by then they would be too old to even deserve any attention.