Strange Symphonies The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

The Rise of Intellectual Property Rights in Malaysia?

Most of you have probably heard of the dogs Lucky and Flo that has given Malaysia alot of airtime lately in international news.

If you haven't heard, its a strange case of believe it or not, these two dogs are especially trained to sniff out pirated DVDs! Believe it or not.

Its an interesting way to find pirated DVDs, and I had planned many times to write up posts on the issues of copyright, the success of Lucky and Flo, and the potential impact (goods and bads) that it may have. But today, I decided to actually publish something at least.

The Star reports that Malaysia is in line for a new court dealing with Intellectual Property and a new Act to go along with it. Like good buddies!

A new act eh? Makes me all the more curious as what could possible be in it...

Shafie also announced the drafting of a new Act to address the problem of illegal movie recording in cineplexes.

Although current laws relating to copyright and IP can be used to prosecute offenders, they may be some loopholes in them.

"The current laws may not cover the newer recording gadgets or technologies so that's why we need a new law," Shafie said.

He said the ministry is now discussing with the Attorney General's Chambers in drafting the "anti-camcording" law but he cannot specify when it will be completed.

Will it strengthen Intellectual Property in Malaysia, and how?

In another article by the Star, they report that Malaysian awareness for Intellectual Property is low.

Now you didn't need the Star to tell you did. I could have done so myself.

Of the hundreds of utility innovations and industrial designs patented every year, only about 8% of the applications were from Malaysians, he said.

• Intellectual Property does not comprise of only Patents.
• Patents are not an indicator of the "intellectual capacity" of a country

Going back to the first article it brings up:

Shafie said the cause for the delay was locating qualified judges that would be able to hear these cases.

Note: Emphasis by me.

In general its difficult to find people qualified to discuss intellectual property (I wonder if I'm qualified), due to the large disregard for Intellectual Property in Malaysia. Everyone knows it. Copyrighted work gets treated as if it were in the public domain over here.

Alright, lets give it some leeway in that the first article was focused on movies, and the second one on patents.

I personally think the bigger problem that needs to be addressed is exactly that: Malaysians have a large disregard for Intellectual Property.

And I don't think anyone here could argue against that. Therefore, will these actions being taken, address that issue?

Is the ill treatment of Intellectual Property good or bad? Well that is for another article.

My take is that I have benefited (not financially, but technically) from the proliferation and easy accessibility to pirated software. I am not the only one who has. I can guarantee you that a lot of Malaysia's youth have as well.

Does this make the act of piracy any less bad? Perhaps. Yes it is bad to steal another person's work.

So how do I give people the "easy accessibility" to tools, Free and Open Source Software. Because you have the right to give it away, for free or for profit.

If you want to remove piracy, at least make it easy for students to access the same materials, easily, (hopefully freely or extremely low cost), and legitly. First things that come to mind...Free Culture content, Creative Commons licensed content, Wikipedia.

Looking at it from another perspective, who are the biggest proponents for stronger Intellectual Property Rights? Who would also have the biggest gains?

Intellectual Property Rights is confusing stuff!