'Some companies and individuals have paid good money to these file-sharing sites for 'premium' services to avoid download queues and ads.'

MCMC blocks Pirate Bay and top file-sharing sites

Lim Kuan Keat: I can understand blocking torrent sites like The Pirate Bay but legitimate file-sharing sites such as Deposit Files and Megaupload? I know several companies who use such sites to upload high-resolution key art and material as a cost-effective way of delivering large files to their clients and partners.

So do many individuals who can't send large files via email attachment because of the size limit. Some of these companies and individuals have paid good money to these file-sharing sites for 'premium' services to avoid download queues and ads.

Will MCMC (Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission) compensate them for their loss of service? MCMC is foolishly throwing out the baby with the bath water.

Anonymous_5fb: Preventing access to any website is actually Internet censorship, whereas Dr Mahathir Mohamad had guaranteed there would be no censorship of the Internet when launching the Multimedia Super Corridor.

It looks like the Umno-led BN government can longer stand the serious threat from the Internet to their continued hold on power. Internet censorship, in whatever name you call it, has serious repercussions on Malaysia's integrity as a whole.

Anonymous: What hypocrisy! Committing to a principle (of an uncensored Internet) only to renege under the guise of legitimacy? Yet, DVD peddlers still do their thing freely? It makes absolutely no sense.

Nicole: If the BN government is not serious about their inked agreement (not to censor the Internet), does it mean the rakyat can also insist on revoking IPPs (independent power producers), Plus agreements, Lynas contracts, etc?

Pandoran: The ISPs (internet service providers) themselves could have requested this as these sites cost them bandwidth loss due to users being connected for long hours to the sites when downloading files.

M'siaKiniFan: This stinks. Censorship of file-sharing websites is totally ridiculous. I just wonder why MCMC did not do the same move to censor ‘Fitnah Porn' on TV3. Thank you MCMC, for doing a great service to rakyat by showing us your idiocy.

Anonymous_3f52: Why does the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry want to stop file-sharing? Don't they realise that file-sharing has significantly reduced the sale of pirated software and DVD movies?

It has made their lives easier, unless they are somehow losing ‘income' from the reduction of pirated goods in the market.

Pandoran: Look at the big picture. It's all about money. I am sure now Malaysian companies like Yes 4G, Maxis and TM will start their own file-sharing services, courtesy of MCMC.

Danny Lohh: Is this the first step to a full-scale Internet censorship? Now, it's the Copyrights Act, what next? ISA? Or any Acts that could let them shut down independent online news portals?

Ben Hor: Block file-sharing sites like this now, and later MCMC will start blocking independent news sites like Malaysiakini and Malaysia Today for causing ‘racial disharmony'.

The government will eventually start blocking anything and everything that is deemed to be a threat to ‘national security'. Malaysia will soon be like China.

Hmm, maybe then when Perkasa yells "Balik Cina", the Chinese can say, "We're home".

Pirate Bay 'upset' but unfazed by blockade

Concern_Father: Frankly, I never used piratebay.org or any of the other nine banned sites. I know their existence after reading Malaysiakini .

During my training days in Finland, we use a simple method to bypass blocked sites. The trick is to use Google's translation service. You give it the URL of an English page, but tell it to translate from Chinese to English. Anything not in Chinese passes through unchanged.

I am sharing this just to remind the government the "promise" Malaysia made to the world not to censor the Internet. But please do not use this to download pirated items. If you cannot afford to purchase it, then you do not deserved to own it.

Troubleshooter_sltiger: Pirate Bay has hit the nail on the head. We have a bunch of idiots and nincompoops in the ruling party. Why do they make such idiotic decisions? The answer is simple - they are corrupt to the core.

Saengch: Thanks to Malaysiakini for reporting this. This is the Malaysian government's attempt to control and censor the ISPs. This establishes a precedent that will help BN oppresses Internet service companies.

As for intellectual property, there is an emerging theory that because it can be copied without hurting the owner's right, all patents, copyright and IP (intellectual property) should be abolished as it only mean that the government is enforcing a monopoly.

Regarding Malaysiakini's copyright, it is largely unaffected because Malaysiakini provides the community with news, comments, and timely updates that pirates cannot take away, but can only help promote when they share a stale story.

Similarly, CDs of Philippines singers are widely pirated among those who can least afford them. This promotes their popularity and concert sales, because nothing can replace their in-person performance. See here and here .

Anonymous_410a: The real pirates are the ones wielding power in high positions who misuse the power that they hold for their selfish gains. We see this in governments and corporations.

The ministers and CEOs that are supposed to lead are instead looking out only for themselves, carrying out their sins in the dark, only to be caught pants down with prostitutes, owning properties that they could not otherwise own and pirating away the wealth of nations to enrich their own.

At least the people who run TPB (The Pirate Bay) are not hypocrites like these so-called ministers...

Monochrome: Even the most advanced countries which are most worried about IP (intellectual property) are not banning these sites. These websites are just the messengers. most of their contents are legitimate and legal.

Instead, Malaysia should ban Google, Bing and Yahoo. They are the mother of all IP perpetrator for they provide links and ways of downloading files.

Ben Hor: I'm surprise that Pirate Bay, a non-Malaysian-based company, does actually know the true facts of Malaysia. They really did get that it right about the "corrupt government" and its "stupidity".

Perhaps the underground DVD sellers are pressuring the government to block these sites due to the lack of sales.

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