MCMC states that the implication of the digital piracy to Malaysia’s economy is significant where these illegal activities had caused the industry RM1.05 billion in loss of revenue and the government RM157 million in loss of tax as of year 2016 along with 1,900 job losses in the filming and broadcasting industry. Regulators, law enforcement agencies and industry players converged discuss efforts on safeguarding Malaysia’s creative content industry against digital piracy.

The summit organized by the MCMC, in collaboration with Coalition Against Piracy and Asia Video Industry Association were joined by content companies to curb the increasing trend of pirated content consumed by consumers and the blatant sale of TV boxes that allow illegal content streaming.

During the session, Minister of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia, YB Tuan Gobind Singh Dec said that the government acknowledges the need for it to be more proactive in fighting digital piracy so that Internet users and media consumers do not take this issue lightly. All agencies involved is tasked to join forces to address the matter and to work on enforcing laws that infringe the Copyright Act 1987.

MCMC Chairman, Al-lshsal called on all stakeholders to do their part/ in a concerted and sustained effort, to educate the public about intellectual property and the culture of respecting other people’s intellectual property rights and ownership. He encouraged the participants of the summit to benefit from the exchanges of valuable information and networking at this summit as they could contribute to a more holistic and effective strategy in tackling digital piracy.  There has been calls to ban the sales of TV boxes with Singapore already passing law that prohibits these devices, it has been reported that Malaysia will be acting on this soon.