PUTRAJAYA: An illegal music download website was crippled following the arrest of the operator of www.jiwang.org (JWG), in what is considered the first online music piracy raid in Malaysia.
A team led by the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry caught the suspect during a June 11 raid in Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, where the suspect was operating out of his house.
The ministry’s enforcement director Mohd Roslan Mahayudin said they launched the raid – dubbed Ops Skyfall – after five months of surveillance and confiscated computers and related equipment worth some RM30,000.
“The suspect admitted to owning and operating the JWG website. The website owner is said to have earned hundreds of thousands of ringgit,” he said at a press conference at the ministry’s office here.
Roslan noted that the suspect earned a living by charging a subscription fee for downloaders to use his website’s services, and also from advertising space following the high demand from users.
Recording Industry Association of Malaysia chief executive officer Tan Ngiap Foo, who was also present at the press conference, added that the suspect had practically every single album of Malay artists published in Malaysia on his server.
“We haven’t really counted how many songs are available, but you have everything from Siti Nurhaliza to P. Ramlee. We estimate that copyright holders have suffered at least RM10mil in losses over the past five years,” he said.
Tan said they found that the market serviced by JWG was used not only by Malaysians in the country and overseas, but also by Indonesians and Bruneians.
Roslan pointed out that the raid only emphasised the shift by intellectual property pirates from physical piracy such as illegal DVD peddlers of the past decade, to more clandestine online operations.
He said the ministry was currently monitoring 32 websites operating locally and globally offering services similar to JWG, and warned that they were gearing up for their next assault on online pirates.
“The ministry is upgrading its effectiveness in dealing with online piracy. We are arming our staff with advanced ICT capabilities, and we have also moved for amendments to the Copyright Act to extend the liability (for piracy) to service providers,” he said.
