MALAYSIAN AUTHORITIES CRACK DOWN ON WEBHOSTING COMPANY HOSTING ROGUE SITES
Raid Conducted As Websites Hosted Were Distributing Infringing Movie Content
- 21Jan 2010
Hong Kong/Kuala Lumpur – On January 20, a team of four enforcement officers from the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism (MDTCC) assisted by officers from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Cybersecurity Malaysia as well as the Malaysian Federation Against Copyright Theft (MFACT), the latter representing Motion Picture Association (MPA) in Malaysia, conducted a raid on a datacenter that had rented server space to Piradius Sdn Bhd, a company providing webhosting services to websites hosting infringing movie content.
Following investigations, MDTCC officers found copies of MPA member company titles, including “Avatar”, “G.I Joe – The Rise of Cobra” and “Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen” on the websites http://tbkresouces.org
. The data trail also led officers to the AIMS Datacenter, located in the heart of the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, which rents out server space to the company.
“We are heartened to note that the authorities have no tolerance for webhosting companies that allow rogue websites to operate,” said Mike Ellis, President and Managing Director, Asia-Pacific, MPA. “Such enforcement effort reinforces our work in the Malaysia and the region in going after the source of such illegal content. This is a promising start to the New Year and we look forward to working with the Malaysian authorities to crackdown on more such cases.”
This is not the first time that webhosting companies in Malaysia have found themselves in a tight spot with the authorities. In June 2008, Shinjiru Technology Sdn Bhd was ordered by MDTCC to shut down 19 websites that were hosting infringing copies of movie titles hosted at their server. Shinjiru was also in trouble last year when it was also ordered to shut down two Torrent sites - Superfondo and Leechers Lair - for contravening Section 41 of the Copyright Act of 1987 by the MCMC working together with the MDTCC.
“I’d like to say to the criminals trying to hide behind a webhost in Malaysia – that it’s of no use. We’re going to be actively monitoring webhosts and will take the necessary action to remove all illegal activity taking place,” said Roslan Mahyuddin, the Director General of the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism’s (MDTCC) Enforcement Department.
Download File (PDF)About the MPA
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) and Motion Picture Association International (MPA-I) represent the interests of major motion picture companies in the global marketplace. To do so, it promotes and protects its member companies’ intellectual property rights and conducts public awareness programs to highlight to movie fans around the world the importance of content protection. These activities have helped to transform entire markets benefiting film industries in each country including foreign and local filmmakers alike.
The organizations’ worldwide operations are directed from its headquarters in Los Angeles, California and overseen in the Asia Pacific by a team based in Singapore. Its member companies include: Paramount Pictures Corporation; Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.; Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Universal City Studios LLLP; The Walt Disney Studios; and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. For more information about the MPA, please visit www.mpa-i.org.
