Coalition Meets Prime Minister

The Malaysian recording artist/industry personnel anti-piracy coalition GMKMM (the movement to save Malaysia's music heritage) has taken the issue of the country's escalating piracy crisis to the highest political levels here.

Representatives of GMKMM, formed last November to increase awareness about piracy, held a meeting with Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad July 18 at his office here to discuss the subject. Those attending the unprecedented 45-minute meeting included artist and GMKMM chairman SM Salim (Warner Music), labelmate M.Nasir (Warner Music), and SRC Records signing Siti Nurhaliza. Also present were Ng Chong Hock, chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) local affiliate the Recording Industry Assn. of Malaysia (RIM), and GMKMM committee member Rosmin Hashim.

Hashim, who is also managing director of Malaysian indie Nova Music, says GMKMM's presentation included statistics and photographic evidence illustrating domestic piracy activities. With Malaysia's music piracy rate in 2001 at more than 50% of all sales, RIM warned then that the problem could destroy the Malaysian music industry within a relatively short span of time (Billboard, March 24, 2001).

DOOMSDAY SCENARIO

"We brought up the 'Doomsday 2003' scenario," Hashim says of the meeting, "and we gave the prime minister suggestions on how to combat piracy. One of the main points was establishing a special anti-piracy unit to focus on copyright law."

Hashim notes that Mohamad seemed to understand the gravity of the situation. "The prime minister said he would bring up the matter at the next cabinet meeting," he says, conceding that the premier "didn't state when that would be."

The issue of what many see as ineffective enforcement of the Optical Disc Act (ODA) 2000 was also raised at the meeting. The act, passed in September 2000, requires companies manufacturing optical discs to be licensed by the government (Billboard, July 29, 2000). But earlier this year, a report from the Washington, D.C.-based International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) stated that the level of music piracy in the territory had increased from 65% to 70% in the preceding year as a result of a lack of sustained enforcement of the ODA (Billboard, March 9). The report, published Feb. 14, claimed raids on unlicensed plants were seldom followed up by active prosecutions. The IIPA represents the U.S. copyright community, including labels body the Recording Industry Assn. of America and the National Music Publishers Assn.

Meanwhile, Malaysia's Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs is setting up a forensic department to counter music piracy. According to RIM secretary Darren Choy, local pirates use chemicals to wipe out the IFPI manufacturing code that is copied onto pirated CDs from original copies during the duplication process. The ministry plans to buy a 500-power microscope at a cost of $210,000 to find traces of the code on suspect discs to determine whether they are pirate product. Choy calls the move significant and "a step in the right direction." He adds: "It should help us to prosecute piracy cases faster."