The war against piracy seems to be never ending, and locally, the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDN) has kept track of the number of sites that got blocked as part of the effort. In a Bernama report, the ministry claims that “a total of 3,682 illegal websites offering and spreading pirated content such as popular films and music have been blocked from 2021 to November 2024”.
The report quotes Minister of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Armizan Mohd Ali as saying that the blocking was done in collaboration with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and ISPs. He also sais that “this is part of them ministry’s commitment to protecting local creative works from being exploited illegally”.
Armizan also added that the “KPDN will continue to strengthen cooperation with various agencies involve din efforts to address digital piracy issues”. part of this effort is the introduction of what is called the Cyber Copyright Enforcement Programme (CyCore), though as mentioned, this is specifically for protecting local media from piracy.
On one hand, these are laudable efforts from a legal perspective. But on the other, local anti-piracy measures, as well other measures to combat online vice like gambling and pornography, has had a very recent history of being too heavy-handed.
(Source: Bernama)
