Once the Palestinians stepped in, they ended up actually returning most of the seized pirate materials to the pirate. The Palestinian Authority needs to inform officials in charge of the seriousness of copyright piracy in the territories, and of the detrimental message that is sent to pirates by returning to them seized illegal product. Legitimate distributors cannot begin to compete with the low-cost pirate compilation CDs being churned out. The problem only promises to get worse. End-user piracy is similarly endemic in the Palestinian Authority.
Corporate enterprises use primarily illegal product.
The same holds true for the government of the Palestinian Authority, where it is estimated that virtually all software in use by government institutions is illegal. Because of the absence of copyright legislation in Gaza and the West Bank, the business software industry has found it all but impossible to protect its rights in the region. The Palestinian Authority must be encouraged both to enact modern copyright legislation soon and to carry out enforcement against unfettered piracy, including penalties that deter further infringements. The Interactive Digital Software Association reports that there are two small factories in the Palestine Authority producing pirated videogames on CDs. The U.S. publishing industry knows of two bookstores in Nblus that have been pirating U.S. textbooks as well as STM books, selling them at prices which make it impossible for U.S. publishers to sell legitimate books into the Palestinian territories.