PUTRAJAYA: The Communications and Multimedia Ministry is discussing with other ministries and related agencies to come up with an agency and a specific legislation system to curb the spread of digital piracy, said its minister Gobind Singh Deo.
He said it was time that aggressive efforts were made to amend existing laws to ensure sterner action, like heavier and proportionate fines or jail penalty, were drawn up in the near future.
He said digital piracy syndicates were making easy profits from the digital content market of late, and they did not fear the law or punishment.
“It has been brought to my attention that every time a complaint is lodged about digital piracy, it is pushed from one agency to another. If this goes on, the public will lose faith in our system.
“When we took action, we found that the problem was getting out of control. So, the suggestion was that my ministry will discuss how to get all the related agencies to be placed under one ministry,” he told reporters at the Kuala Lumpur Digital Content Anti-Piracy Conference here yesterday.
Gobind was among the guest panellists at a discussion session regarding the digital piracy landscape and overview of issues in Malaysia. Cynthia Ng of Astro Awani hosted the session, which was also joined by film producer Datuk Dr Yusof Haslam and celebrity spokeswoman Lisa Surihani.
Explaining further, Gobind said his ministry would meet the stakeholders and interested parties so that a holistic and comprehensive solution could be drawn up.
Apart from the affected agencies, he said the ministry would also study the judicial process, including on a more effective prosecution period to prevent the same problem from recurring.
“To solve this problem, firstly, the complaint must be lodged with a specific agency which has the authority to take action and investigate; then it must have special jurisdiction to take the matter to court to resolve the issue soonest as possible.
“We are discussing it at the ministry level before tabling these details to the Cabinet,” he said, adding that this would involve amending the relevant provisions rather than enacting new laws.
Gobind said amendments to related laws also needed to be implemented to strengthen enforcement efforts, including blocking websites identified for posting unlicensed digital content.
He said the main aim of this aggressive approach was to make these syndicates afraid of continuing their operations and eventually stop offering their services to customers.
Meanwhile, Yusof, in sharing his experience, said the issue of copyright and digital piracy had been going on for the past 65 years, and that he even took it upon himself to take action against those who peddled pirated copies of his film, Pasrah, in Chow Kit.
“I lodged a report and the authorities took action, but after one week they were back at it. This is the reason why many young producers refuse to be involved in the film industry, they become despondent. At times, pirated copies of my films are already out on the market although they haven’t been shown in cinemas.
“I hope the new government will take sterner legal action to combat piracy. If there are strict laws, surely the syndicates will be fearful. We have laws, but the culprits are not afraid. I am not pointing the finger at anyone, but it’s like the authorities do not walk the talk,” he said.
Lisa also told of how one DVD seller tried to get her signature after seeing her photograph on the cover of the pirated DVDs he was selling.
Two other panellists, Astro Group Content, Malay and Nusantara Division head, Datuk Khairul Anwar Salleh and Media Partners Asia founder and director Vivek Couto stressed the need for a stricter enforcement system to tackle digital piracy activities. — Bernama