Piracy in Malaysia

Piracy is indeed a common state in Malaysia as we can find pirated CD, DVD and software easily, especially in Pasar Malam.

Government has launched “Sikap Tulen” from 2005 until now to cultivating the culture of using and purchase original legal software. There are 6 components of Sikap Tulen Campaign:

1. Sikap Tulen Professional

2. Sikap Tulen Director

3. Sikap Tulen Company

4. Sikap Tulen Society

5. Sikap Tulen IT Mall

6. Ops Tulen

How successful of the “Sikap Tulen” campaign?

It may be easier to raid the firms that using pirated business software by enforces them to conduct a software audit and report the audit to the authorities. The reward of RM20,000 for the piracy reporter also encourage people, such as employees, to report whoever is using illegal software. Moreover, the successful of government deploy sniffer dogs to combat the illegal software also contribute to the decrease of piracy software.

However, how the government ensures the public not purchasing any piracy software or disc?

It is indeed a tough job. The primary reason is that the cost of purchases the original software is higher than the pirated software. The original software costs you at least hundreds while the pirated software only RM10. Although the pirated software does not as good as original, the cost and benefits analysis underline the pirated software is in terms more cost effective and enough for the users.

Moreover, handful of free download software, programs and digital format files available in Internet induce the piracy problem. Piracy bogeyman can download all the files from Internet, copy it into optical disc and sell it. Even public can easily download the files and enjoy it.

Thus, to successfully solve piracy problem, the purchase price of original should not be too high and affordable for the public. For instance, iTunes that offer cheap legal music files (1 song for 99¢) can encourage public to download legal music files. Government and authorities can also learn from UK by cutoff the Internet connection of illegal downloader.

By Fui Chin