From a kiosk in a city mall of Malaysia's capital, Julina Tan makes a living selling bootleg copies of Hollywood movies and Microsoft Corp's latest version of Office XP software.
The duplicates, which include Rush Hour 2 starring Jackie Chan and Moulin Rouge featuring Nicole Kidman, hit the streets ahead of their box office release, threatening to dent takings of Twentieth Century Fox and other Hollywood studios.
"As long as they are cheap and they get to see the movies first, they don't mind about the quality," said the 42-year-old Tan, her mobile phone ringing incessantly with calls from suppliers.
The fortunes of Tan and her likes may be reversed as Malaysia intensifies its crackdown on copyright piracy. The government wants to reassure investors who set up shop in a technology park dubbed the Multimedia Super Corridor, such as Sun Microsystems Inc and Nokia Oyj. It also fears foreign investment may dry up in Islamic countries after terrorist attacks prompted the US to declare war on Muslim extremist groups.
"Malaysia is fast becoming known as a center where manufacturing of counterfeit products thrives," said Muhyiddin Yassin, minister for domestic trade and consumer affairs. "This image is not good. It deters foreign investors."
Malaysia's movie industry guild loses 150 million ringgit (US$39.5 million) to pirates every year, said Chow Will Pin, general manager of Twentieth Century Fox Film Sdn. The Business Software Alliance, an anti-piracy agency, said software makers lose another US$90 million in revenue.
This week, the government will target some 30,000 companies suspected of using illegal copies of Microsoft's Windows operating systems, Symantec Inc's Norton anti-virus program and Adobe Systems Inc's Photoshop, an image-editing application.
In the past two months, Malaysia stepped up enforcement by sweeping video pirates off popular weekly night markets and shopping malls. That's forced many operators to resort to home delivery services.
The Business Software Alliance says its members lost US$544 million to piracy in Malaysia between 1995 and last year. Hollywood's largest movie studios like Fox, Sony Corp's Columbia Pictures and the Walt Disney Co have probably lost as much as US$240 million during the same period.
"We have been able to release more titles now compared with last year but our box-office collection remains about the same level," said Fox's Chow. "There's still leakage, so we know the pirates are still out there." Under Malaysia's Copyright Act 1987, company directors may be fined up to 10,000 ringgit (US$2,631) for each unlicensed software title or receive a five-year jail sentence, or both. The penalty is twice as severe for those with duplicating equipment that isn't registered under the Optical Discs Act 2000.
The government is also offering an instant 500 ringgit cash reward for each report on companies involved in piracy, and 20,000 ringgit for each tip-off that leads to successful prosecution.
"We have used part of this year's 32 million ringgit budget to fight the scourge," Roslan Mahayudin, deputy director-general of enforcement division, said in an interview. "Next year, we will ask for more to sustain this crackdown."
The Business Software Alliance, an anti-piracy group comprising some of the world's largest software makers such as Microsoft, Adobe, and Apple Computer Inc, says the effort is beginning to yield results.
Last year, Malaysia pared the piracy rate to 66 percent from 71 percent in 1999, said Lee Tse Mei, a vice-president at the Alliance in Singapore. In China, piracy actually rose to 94 percent from 91 percent in the same period. Neighboring Indonesia too saw piracy levels go up to 89 percent from 85 percent during this time frame.
"End-users need to know that these businesses are profiteering from stolen property."
Still, the Malaysian government may find it hard to wean consumers away from inexpensive bootleg copies.
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