Government to Amend Law, Make it Illegal to Keep Pirated Goods
06 December 2012
The Government of Malaysia will soon amend its Copyright Act 1987 to make it an offence to keep pirated goods, the news agency Bernama has reported. A similar law makes it illegal to possess stolen goods.
Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Minister of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism, said the amendment will streamline the existing provision and raise public awareness on the similarities between keeping pirated goods and keeping stolen goods, according to the news report.
“The people should know that an offence is still an offence and if we are aware that we have bought stolen goods, legal action can be taken against us. Pirated compact discs, digital video discs or video compact discs are stolen goods,” he said, speaking at the launch of the Anti-Piracy Campaign 2010 in Kuala Lumpur.
Government officials hope to raise public awareness of pirated goods through the campaign, leading to reduced sales of pirated goods at shopping centres and in businesses, decreased illegal downloading from the internet and weakened piracy syndicates.
Ismail Sabri said that between 2005 and April 2010, action had been taken on a total of 5,561 cases of pirated goods involving the impounding of CDs, DVDs and VCDs and equipment for producing pirated discs worth about RM275 million (US$82.8 million).
