Budiey
MCMC-ISP BLOCKADE OF PIRATE WEBSITES CRUCIAL FOR SURVIVAL OF MALAYSIAN CREATIVE INDUSTRIES
Kuala Lumpur (Tuesday, June 14, 2011) – The Recording Industry Association of Malaysia (RIM) today lauded the Malaysian Government’s recent ground-breaking efforts to uphold copyright laws in the online environment.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference held at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur with artistes and other creative industry associations in attendance, the Chairman of RIM, Norman Abdul Halim said that “in line with developments in progressive nations around the world, Malaysia has shown exemplary leadership in tackling the lawlessness of the internet and previously unmitigated damage caused to the creative industries by illegal file sharing sites.”
“The Government therefore has and fully deserves our unequivocal support in the face of tremendous unfair criticism from individuals and various organisations using righteous sounding but ridiculous reasons such as “violation of human rights for access to the internet” or “contravention of Government guarantees for non-censorship of the internet” to justify illegal file-sharing and profit-making at the expense of the livelihoods of thousands of individuals in the creative industries,” he added.
On 30 May 2011, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) issued a directive to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to a number of high-profile illegal file-sharing websites pursuant to Section 263 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 based on the commission of offences under Section 41 of the Copyright Act 1987 as notified by the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism (MDTCC).
“The simple fact is what is illegal offline is also illegal online. Upholding the rule of law cannot and must not be done away with if civil society is to exist. The MCMC and MDTCC’s recent actions are not about the shutting down or censorship of websites. It is about addressing the commission of criminal offences, namely copyright piracy in this case.
Insisting that the Government retracts its actions here and ceases from doing anything remotely resembling ‘censorship of the Internet’ despite clear breaches of law would be akin to saying that websites promoting terrorism or paedophilia should also be left to proliferate.
There is even a particular website specialising in providing pirated Malaysian music recordings for illegal file-sharing whilst reaping lucrative revenue advertising revenue from commercial organisations which has been operating for many years with impunity despite various industry efforts and we trust that the MCMC will continue to take similar action based on the MDTCC’s recommendations, to stop its highly destructive effects on the local music industry.
ISP industry players also have an interest in tackling this problem of illegal file-sharers who also unfairly hog bandwidth and slow down connection speeds for legitimate broadband users who actually end up subsidising the internet costs of such copyright free-loaders.
The music industry is hopeful that pending amendments to the Copyright Act will address the issue of ISP liability to additional legal impetus to the ISP industry to cooperate closely with the creative industries in addressing online piracy,” said Norman.
