Pirated movie vendors go mobile to avoid crackdown

Anti-piracy programs have caused the business to go deeper underground

Straits Times
Thursday, February 8, 2007

By Leslie Lau

At a suburban hawker centre in Petaling Jaya, the fare on offer range from delicious bowls of laksa and pork noodles to the latest Jackie Chan or Ben Stiller blockbuster.

A young man with spiky hair walks up to prospective customers with the latest pirated movies tucked in a folder, offering them at RM9 (S$4) per copy.

The movie, he guarantees, is "clear" and not one of those versions with poor sound and picture.

"If it is not clear, you can just come back here tomorrow. I will give you another one for free," he tells customers who are scrolling through his folder.

In the next few minutes, he strikes a sale for five movies, pocketing RM45.

Operation Trident, the two-month anti-piracy operation in 12 Asia-Pacific countries, seems to have done little to dent this business here. Except to drive it deeper underground.

Over the past few years, a sustained crackdown on pirated movie vendors has cleared the city's night markets of most such stalls offering the latest movies.

But piracy thrives, adapting by using different tactics to evade enforcement action.

Many syndicates have hired mobile salesmen to peddle the movies in restaurants.

They have also moved their operations into street-side shoplots and shopping malls which purportedly sell legitimate movies.

These shops stock copies of the legal discs but also offer the pirated stuff, which is not overtly displayed.

At one such shop in the upmarket Bangsar neighbourhood here, customers walk in and choose the movies they want, and then place an order at the sales counter.

"Just wait outside and our guy will deliver in a few minutes," the sales clerk tells customers.

And sure enough, a man rides up to the customer in a motorcycle and passes him the pirated movies.

"It is very difficult to crack down on these shops because there are often no pirated movies on their premises when we conduct raids," an official with the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry told The Straits Times.

Malaysia has stepped up its enforcement action in recent years because it is under intense pressure from the United States as the two countries are in talks to negotiate a free trade agreement.

The Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry has now focused its enforcement action on cutting the supply of such discs by raiding illegal factory lines.

Still, while Malaysia's success rate at closing down factories has been commended by the Motion Picture Association, the supply seems to be unending, with more factories sprouting to replace ones that are closed down.

Malaysia is now considering amending existing legislation to prosecute landlords of pirated movie shops, to ensure the piracy syndicates' access to the public is cut off for good.

Date Posted: 2/8/2007