At the first sitting of the IP Court, an unemployed man was issued with an arrest warrant for not being present in a case in which he was in possession of 246 pirated songs in 24 cassettes.

Rosdi Mamat, 42, from Pasir Puteh in Kelantan did not show up when his name was called up at 3pm.

...

Rosdi is accused of committing the offence at an unnumbered stall at a night market in Jalan Kuching at 9.30pm on Nov 6, 2003.

If convicted, he can be fined up to RM20,000 or jailed five years, or both, under the Copyrights Act 1987.

In the same court, four other copyright cases were also heard.

How did they even find this person? Is this a case of remixing various tapes to create a playlist? If so is this illegal in Malaysia? If this was simply the case, then this could set the precedent making remixes is bad.

If only I could find more detail, any help guys? Time to look at the Malaysia Copyright Act of 1987, again...

You can misinterpret the first pagagraph of the article, to read that the main job of the IP courts is the appeasement of foreign countries.

Malaysia hopes to be removed from the international watch list for intellectual property offences with the setting up Intellectual Property (IP) Courts.

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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!

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So Arsyan, you've finally been caught, and dugg. Happy?

The comments on digg's site are interesting. Basically not too many people are happy with it. Of course, who wouldn't be?
The main argument is, there is no problem copying Digg, but as long as you make it look different. There is even encouragement for localization, which I think should be the direction Digg Malaysia should take. It has a direct resemblance to version 2.0 of Digg. Even the comments given by Malaysians say this.

A Moment of Justice

At least a moment of justice was struck on the Internet when Digg Malaysia was dugg to death.

The Legal Solution

I am interested to see if Digg.com will try to seek legal action towards Digg Malaysia. Now this will be an interesting thing to see? Why? Because I don't recall ever seeing any sort of thing like this happen in Malaysian history. Especially with Malaysians understanding very little about Intellectual Property, making the case even more fun! Or maybe someone can update me. Best of luck to both sides!

Or how about if this were to happen?

An Alternate Solution

Am I the only one who sees the potential here? Kevin and Co. shouldn't be trying to shut these guys down, they should be handing them the olive branch. Localized versions of Digg, under the official company and trademark would make Digg even a stronger presence and more true to the "Content for Everyone" philosophy that I always thought Digg was about. I say instead of trying to get these guys in a court, the higher ups should try to make them an official branch.

Comment by TemporalRift

Sounds like an interesting idea.:P

Comments by (supposed) Malaysians

So I've found some comments on the site, and listed them down. Basically people Malaysians aren't too happy.

Note: All emphasis was added by me

wow, Malaysia memang boleh copy sia...
what a blatant act of counterfeiting, a 100% full duplicate, at least put some thought in changing the name and design? the site's making a bad name for my nation man, what a disgrace

Comment by orangysb

--

Malaysian, but I'm not proud of the blatant copying of other people's sites.

Change the name, graphics, hell, change everything and try to at least be creative. This is shameful!

Comment by Idyllrain

--

Thank-you for proving to the entire world just how lame us Malaysians are at coming up with our own ideas and developing original internet services.

This Sucks

Comment by AceMcAbe

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being a malaysian, i wish there were more technopreneurs here who would actually put in effort into making original and high-quality websites, portals or social news sites; not blatant rip-offs and clones. yes we all love digg, but cloning it word for word, css for css just isn't the way to go.

Comment by jeremyisaacelee

--

i think im gonna be sick...
doesnt make it better to know im malaysian either

Comment by praveenmarkandu

--

I'm embarrassed to be Malaysian. We copy everything, and we are also always seeking worldly recognition by doing the most outlandish of things to get into the Guinness Book of Records. I think it's a Napoleon complex that all Malaysians suffer from. Like a shorter man wanting to get attention in a crowd of tall people, he stands on a box. And since we don't have an ounce of ingenuity in us, we go around and pull off a "copy pasta" on anything we see.

Comment by Onsokumaru

--

Im malaysian, I think they should change the layout.

Comment by kayid

Conclusions

Obviously from the Malaysian responses, Malaysians aren't too happy about it, ashamed, and embarrassed.

The fact that people aren't too happy about is also important. This minor population understand the shame in copying original products. Wait a minute? Isn't that what the fight for piracy was all about? Do these people understand and respect IPR more than others? Especially when the product is a good one?

I bet a lot of Malaysians hold respect for digg.com.

• Is this the best Malaysian technopreneurs can do?
• How will Malaysia face piracy on the web?

So Arsyan, it seems you have brought shame to Malaysia. What are you going to do about it? Can you make Malaysians proud? At least thanks for highlighting how prevalent piracy and disrespect for intellectual property is in Malaysia. This is a good example, and I hope that it strikes into the hearts of many Malaysians (or perhaps just the readers of Digg).

Some Better News

Actually it's not all bad news. I was linked to BizBox.com.my and look and behold, they use the Tango Desktop Project Icon set. All good and dandy, but I didn't see any attribution. So I decided to email them, and they noticed it as well, and said they will put it up soon . Looking forward to it.

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Intellectual Property, as in what sense, patents, more specifically software patents? The document didn't really say. Though as far as I know software patents do not exist in Malaysia, but maybe things have changed? Or will...

This may not have been emphasised in the past, so I want to make it clear that IP generation is now part of Mimos’ key performance indicators.

Is IP really a performance indicator? My opinion are perhaps skewed by my hatred towards Software Patents.

"This is in line with the Government’s initiative to reward and recognise the contributions of researchers to the nation, said Wahab.

Yay! This I am inline with.

The eight areas which the information and communications technology-applied research agency will be focusing on are cyber security, encryption systems, grid computing and multi-service networks, wireless broadband, micro-electro-mechanical/nano-electro-mechanical systems, advanced informatics, knowledge technology and micro systems.

If any of their patents are software based. I worry about that if a government body is able to patent software, this could perhaps pave the way for Software Patents.

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The event went without a hitch, and was pretty smooth that we even ended early by thirty minutes. Before attending the event, it appeared to me that it may be seen as a negotation. Labelling the event as a 'roundtable' helps emphasize this point. Nonetheless the event was seen as an exchange of ideas, and not a negotiation of any kind.

The event was opened with speeches by both the US Ambassdor in Malaysia, and the Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs. In both of their speeches there was heavy emphasis on piracy, and not enough about the other areas of IPR. For starters Intellectual Property consists of:

• Copyright
• Patents
• Trademark

Ammendments suggested by ditesh

• Industrial Design
• Trade Secrets

In respect to the unknown accuracy Wikipedia

• Geographical Indication
• Sui Generis
• Moral Rights

Each one is equally important, but judging from the discussions, the consumer groups are interested more in Patents, than the other subjects. Also the US Embassador, and the industry groups, seemed to be quite happy that there was a raid last night. Won't you think it was quite timely? Was it fabricated, or the raid planned to happen the night before the event to appease the delegates? Or how about the Mall owners being held liable for renting its premises? If it was planned to happen last night, why are we trying to please the delegates when we don't even know what we are getting yet.

In my perspective they are highlighting the Piracy ( Copyright ), in order to sideline the other topics into the agreement. General consensus had it, that there were ultimately two solutions to combat piracy. Enforcement, and lowering price goods. I'll let you guess who lobbied which solution. Personally, I'm in the lowering price camp. But, I am not a happy consumer, when I cannot play my legally bought DVD on my FOSS operating system.

If what the Malaysian side said was true, then it sounds like we are doing a great job combatting piracy. If this is the case, why should there be any change in IPR protection? Some people would argue otherwise.

I was quite shocked when the American Association of Publishers said that "students want to spend money on their high tech cellphone over books" ( In regards to the large number of photocopying of books near colleges/universities, wording may also be abit different ). First of all not all students have such phones, some even have troubles paying for their tuition. As a student, they are not interested in selling the copied book, they are interested in using it for furthering their studies. Perhaps it should be raised, how can we help these students legally get access to the available resource? The problem with libaries is that typically they do not have a sufficient number of books for the number of students.

The truth is a third option exists. Alternatives. Look at alternatives to the illegal software, such as free and open source software. The application is legally available for free, and with no stupid restrictions applied, bless the four freedoms . For documents and media, perhaps consider using a Creative Commons License. Given this third option, I would definetly chose alternatives, as everyone can benefit from it.

Session Three was aptly labelled, 'Industry Experience in Combating Piracy'. I believe there was a misrepresentation from the Industry, as the Industry players that presented, BSA, AAP, and MPA all represent American interests. Not Malaysians.

The US Congress demands equal to US IPR protection, or else the FTA would not be approved. This boils down to an all or nothing situation. Since this is the case, I suggest the Malaysians discuss the topic about IPR first, rather than wait till the last minute. Because any further discussions would be pointless. Also beware of any legal scrubbing.

I personally do not like how certain people gave long winded answers, and perhaps along the way forgot to answer the actual question. Also the way that some people went to discredit other people, though I don't know if this was intentional.

I will have to thank the people for inviting me, and for Yoke Ling in voicing her opinions at the end of the session.

Kudos to Ditesh and Khairil for being the only representives of the local ICT industry.

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