109. The representative of Malaysia said that his government, in its efforts to combat optical disc piracy, was contemplating optical disc (licensing and control) legislation to be tabled in Parliament. This legislation would further enhance IPR protection, which was now provided by the Copyright Act 1987. This legislation was aimed at licensing and regulating manufacturers of optical discs, with a view to preventing the manufacture of counterfeit copies of optical discs and the infringement of copyright works in optical discs. The legislation provided for stiff penalties for offenders, and it was Malaysia's intention to strictly enforce the provisions of this legislation. However, he said it was sometimes all too convenient to blame optical disc piracy or counterfeiting solely on the infringers of copyrights. In relation to this, owners of copyrights must also bear a certain responsibility to discourage piracy, such as by setting reasonable rates for their products or by including tamper-proof or copy-proof devices so that the motivating factor for piracy was reduced. It had to be stated that infringement of rights would be difficult to contain, so long as the environment remained conducive to it and the priority of copyright holders was on making profits with little regard for ensuring reasonable prices for their products in the international market. For Malaysia, as a developing country Member, the TRIPS Agreement was lopsided, as the onus was on governments to enforce rights and scarce resources had to be devoted to this task. Malaysia would continue to do so, but there had to be shared responsibility between governments and right holders. He reserved the right to revert to this issue at the appropriate time.
