(IPS) Egypt's top pop singer uses song to enforce intellectual property rights these days. His muse? Multinational software corporations like Microsoft, Novell, and Symantec.

Shabaan Abdel Rahim has just released his new hit, "It's haram (Islamically prohibited) to sell or lend a pirated copy".

"This software is owned by somebody else," Rahim intones. "Keep it this way, or there will be police. Do not take someone else's right or there will be an international organisation after you."

In a country where the average yearly income is around US$1,400 and the average computer  not only are they far more expensive than a local call, but they also cost three times the rates that would apply were she calling Egypt from the United States.

"They were all closed," she says of the local Internet cafes. "Nobody seemed to know when they'd open again."

Unbeknownst to Kadouse, authorities here forced the closure of this town's five computer sales and cyber cafes late last year.

Unnecessary expense

"In a country where the average computer machine prices are around 2,500 pounds ( US$500) and nobody seems to be able to afford them, software overheads are an unnecessary extra expense," says Mohammed Riad, IT manager at MRCO-Egypt, which shut down its branch here to pre-empt a police raid and a possible law suit.

"This is a poor country and this city is not any better off," he says. "The slightest extra cost discourages consumers from buying computers in the first place, let alone software and access to the Internet or maintenance costs."

Egypt had 12 computers for every 1,000 people in 1999, the latest year for which the World Bank has published data — one of the lowest rates anywhere. The Bank says the country's annual per capita income stands at US$1,400 dollars, compared to US$2,000 for North Africa. Some 24 percent of Egyptians live below the national poverty line.

"There should be, at least, a period where we are allowed to achieve...a more solid market before we so aggressive implement copyrights laws,'' says Sherif Mostapha, a computer specialist in Cairo. ''Money coming from Egypt is nothing for those companies."

Regardless, the BSA provides funding and training for hundreds of police officers to go after copyright violators throughout the Middle East and particularly in Egypt, according to Khalifa.

In addition, government bodies have sent private companies thousands of letters warning them not to use pirated software. Heavily armed police storm the offices of those who persist and their paramilitary raids are given headline treatment in the state-run press.

Egyptian lawmakers are now discussing increasing the existing penalties — including fines and prison terms — for software copyright offenders.

The BSA credits such tactics with pushing down the rate of piracy in Egypt from 75 percent of all software use in 1999, to 56 percent last year.

Meanwhile, Hanem Kadouse still cannot make an Internet phone call to her daughter in the United States.