We have written a few news about this before and it happened again. Just last Friday, the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court fined an individual, Tiew Ai Teng, 38, RM20,000 or 2 months imprisonment for selling TV boxes pre-loaded with unauthorised Astro content under Section 43AA of the Copyright Act 1987.
Pleaded guilty to the charges and paid the fine, the individual committed the offence on 29 June 2022 at an outlet in EkoCheras Mall, Kuala Lumpur where he had five Android TV Boxes preloaded with unauthorised content. Moreover, there were also three more recent cases where legal actions were taken against piracy and copyright infringement.
According to Astro, below is a brief summary of the other recent legal actions:
- On 3 April 2023, a 22-year-old student was fined by the Kuala Lumpur Magistrate's Court for having in his possession an unauthorised link to a popular local TV drama series on his devices
- On 5 April 2023, two individuals were charged at the Kuala Lumpur Session Court (Cyber) for selling TV boxes with unauthorised Astro content
- On 13 April 2023, two individuals were fined RM14,000 in total by the Kluang Magistrate's Court for selling TV boxes pre-loaded with unauthorised Astro content
The Copyright (Amendment) Act 2022 was gazetted on 10 February 2022. Enforcement of the law was implemented by the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry (KPDNHEP) on 18 March 2022. As a reminder, anyone found guilty can be fined a minimum of RM10,000 to a maximum of RM200,000 or be imprisoned for up to 20 years, or both.
The amendments to the Copyright Act followed the declaration by the Intellectual Property High Court in Kuala Lumpur in May 2021 that the sale, offer for sale, distribution and/or supply of ISDs that can provide unauthorised access to copyrighted works, constitutes copyright infringement under the Copyright Act 1987.
The public is reminded to channel information on piracy activities to KPDNHEP through the hotline at 1-800-886-800 or 03-8882 6088 at the Enforcement Command Centre, WhatsApp at 019-279 4317, email to [email protected] or via Ez ADU app.
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