KUALA LUMPUR: The Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry warns all traders not to sell streaming technology devices which contain copyright works without physical or digital permission.
The ministry's enforcement director Azman Adam said that the ministry will take strict and continuous enforcement action to combat the activity.
“The ministry views the matter seriously, and will not compromise with any individual or dealer involved in offering the sale of streaming technology devices which contain copyright works without physical or digital permission,” he said in a statement Friday (Oct 21).
Azman said strict action would be taken, as stipulated under Section 43AA of the Copyright Act 1987, against any individual or dealer who was found to be selling streaming technology devices containing copyrighted works without permission.
If convicted, offenders can be fined up to RM200,000 or jailed for up to 20 years, or both, he said.
He said the ministry would also take action under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001, which allows all accounts belonging to offenders or suspects to be frozen and forfeited if found guilty.
Meanwhile, Azman said that from 2018 to September 2022, the ministry successfully foiled 531 cases of physical distribution of pirated content, with an estimated value of RM5.4mil.
He also said that in the same period, the ministry successfully blocked 2,252 websites which contain pirated copyright works, and a total of 2,391 content items have been taken down for action (content removal).
Azman added that another initiative taken by the ministry to combat digital copyright violations was to block illegal websites through Cyber Copyright Enforcement (Cycore), and until last month, a total of 319 websites were successfully blocked, involving the removal of 1,902 content items. - Bernama
