Malaysia - Collective move to curb piracy

Digital pirates who are offering “stolen” film and television content online to millions of netizens have become so brazen that they are mocking authorities for not being able to “touch” them.

They are not just inviting consumers through social media to watch the movies they want, they are also daring the authorities to catch them “if they can”.

“What movies you wanna watch, we will get them for you,” said one Facebook post.

Another made no bones about it and even advertised himself as a pencuri (thief).

The current Copyright Act 1987 is 30 years old and is more suited to fight night market DVD piracy and not cyber pirates.

This has affected over-the-top (OTT) companies that offer film and TV series streaming services.

Video streaming service dimsum.my chief marketing officer Lam Swee Kim said technology was not a main issue of piracy previously, adding that the law hardly covered concerns relating to online and digital areas.

The process needed to prosecute culprits took months and by the time a case was filed, the content would have gone viral, she said.

“All media companies, which have the right to original content, face pressures from pirated content,” she said.

Lam said the copyright law also did not allow a licensee to take action and industry players, as licensees, wanted to be authorised to bring action over copyright infringement.

To curb piracy, the industry has, for the first time, come together to work with the Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Ministry to address the problem.

A meeting was held between industry stakeholders and Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin on Thursday on the move to curb piracy. A memorandum was handed over to Hamzah to help the industry counter the problem.

The delegation from the industry was led by Star Media Group group managing director and CEO Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai.

“All the industry players joining hands is unprecedented,” he said.

The memorandum was jointly signed by the Star Media Group and dimsum, Astro, TMnet, iflix and Media Prima.

Hamzah said the ministry would look into the matter and find ways to solve the issue.

He also asked stakeholders to come up with mid and long-term proposed solutions.

As immediate action, Hamzah said the ministry would speed up the current process by getting the industry to inform the ministry on new original content before the release date so enforcement could be carried out immediately if copyright was infringed upon.

Lam said the collective industry voice was a big move because for the first time, they had come together to address the issue.

“The minister was very positive. dimsum is excited to be working with the ministry, as well as other OTT services in Malaysia to curb illegal online streaming and downloading,” she said.

She said all the relevant parties could now meet regularly to monitor the situation, adding that they hoped this would put an end to online piracy.

She said companies spent a lot to produce content as well as get the licence for content distribution and those who share freely were stealing content.

“The public thinks it is all right to share, but it is not. It is actually stealing content,” she said, adding that some did it for fun while others for money, where they get income from advertisers if their sites have a strong following.