Malaysian police have seized 2.5 million pirated and pornographic video compact discs worth about 23 million ringgit (US$6 million) in a major crackdown, officials said yesterday.
In a two-week blitz that concluded Sunday, authorities raided 868 locations nationwide and arrested 464 peddlers and producers of illegally copied discs, said federal police spokesman Shamsuddin Ali.
Prime Minister Mahathir Moh-amad ordered the crackdown last month to eradicate the illegal sale of pornographic videos by back-alley operators in this predominantly Muslim country.
Police widened the blitz to include pirated discs and warned that even people who buy such goods might have their homes raided. Officials have since backed down from the warning, saying laws regarding search warrants would have to be respected.
Anxious that Malaysia is considered a regional hub for video and music piracy, officials have struggled to stop illegally copied discs from being sold at ware-houses, shopping malls and sidewalk stalls.
Despite regular raids, public demand for cheap counterfeit discs has kept business brisk. Pirated video discs of Hollywood, Hong Kong and Indian movies often sell for as low as 3 ringgit (US$0.80) apiece.
Shamsuddin said police believed the crackdown has forced peddlers of pirated discs into hiding, but they will try to sneak back within weeks. Authorities would stay vigilant to prevent this, he said.
On conviction, distributors of illegal discs face up to three years in jail and a maximum fine of 10,000 ringgit (US$2,362) per disc. Peddlers of pornographic discs can be charged with possessing obscene objects for sale and exhibition, which carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.
The crackdown on pornographic discs was launched after copies of a home video allegedly featuring a former Malaysian Airlines flight steward and several female colleagues flooded the market early this year.
"The infamous ex-steward must be the most hated man in the country now," film critic Zeta Lu wrote in The Star newspaper over the weekend. "Movie connoisseurs ... surely want him dead."
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