Copyright pirates are not usually seen in the same light as the eye-patch wearing, peg-legged high seas variety, but in Malaysia they are just as dangerous and lawmen hunting them need to be armed, officials say.

"It's like a war facing these 'tontos'(thugs). What is at stake is hundreds of millions if not billions of ringgit," Domestic Trade Minister Muhyiddin Yassin told local media today.

"The syndicates are becoming more aggressive. The situation is alarming and has reached a critical stage," he said, announcing that enforcement officers from his ministry will be trained by police to handle firearms to defend themselves.

"Our officers on the ground are outnumbered by thugs employed by the piracy syndicates."

Clubs and iron bars

In recent months, nine cases of violence against enforcement officers were reported. In one instance several men in six cars chased and rammed into a vehicle carrying four inspectors after an anti-piracy raid.

The thugs then attacked the officers with clubs and iron bars.

Malaysia, like many parts of Asia, is awash with pirated computer software, CDs and VCDs, to the extent that new movies are usually on the streets for RM5 even before they have opened in most parts of the world. - AFP