Single ministry for the fight
Streamlined efforts needed to curb piracy
PUTRAJAYA:
Agencies relevant to content piracy should be placed under a single ministry to streamline efforts to curb the problem, says Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo.
“We have laws that exist, but the enforcement is an issue.
“We need clarity in the law so when there is an issue, people know who to approach and what can be done,” he said.
He said the collective support of law agencies under the Malaysian Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and Royal Malaysia Police plus industry players is critical.
“By working under the same framework, stakeholders can expect to benefit with roles and responsibilities, enforcement actions and resources being streamlined and coordinated, in order to avoid duplication, confusion or wastage,” he said during the Digital Content Anti-Piracy Summit here yesterday.
He said stakeholders need to realise collaboration extended above and beyond understanding of their own roles and also involved their investment in terms of time, manpower and finance.
Gobind gave the example of how Intellectual Property protection was under Domestic Trade Ministry’s scope, but the technology used to commit the crimes brought it under the purview of his ministry.
“We also need to draw the distinction between piracy and digital piracy,” he said.
He said two key issues to be addressed include faster enforcement to take down pirated content, and a judicial system in place to punish those pirating.
“We need people to see what legal action can be taken against perpetrators to give a signal, so that oth- ers will not do the same,” he said during a press conference at the same event.
However, he said this was still in discussion and could not provide a timeline.
Responding to calls to block sites sharing and streaming pirated content, the minister said this would involve amendments to current legislation, though the ministry was in discussions to enhance MCMC’s powers to more effectively block such sites.
“Having laws is one thing, but there also needs to be a system to enforce judiciously,” he said.
Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs enforcement deputy director Rosli Ahmad said if the site restriction could cause unintended damages to other parties, they would have to consider the options before blocking the site.
He said Internet Service Providers (ISPs) – which provide access to websites – have been supportive from day one on dealing with piracy issues.
“The groundwork has been established, we’ve constantly been working with both content owners and ISPs, and most of the outcome has come from such engagement,” he said.
Responding to calls for private parties to have more power to take down pirate sites to speed up the process, he pointed out that regulatory restrictions meant only the authorities could instruct the ISPs to do so.