Amidst the flack from cyber ‘activists’ over the government’s action against illegal file-sharing sites, the Recording Industry Association of Malaysia (RIM) lauded what it described were “ground-breaking efforts” to uphold copyright laws in the online environment.

NONE RIM chairperson Norman Abdul Halim, in a statement, said the government’s move was "in line with developments in progressive nations around the world.

“Malaysia has shown exemplary leadership in tackling the lawlessness of the internet and previously unmitigated damage caused to the creative industries by illegal file sharing sites," said Norman.

"The government, therefore, has and fully deserves our unequivocal support in the face of tremendous unfair criticism from individuals and various organisations using righteous sounding but ridiculous reasons such as "violation of human rights for access to the Internet", or "contravention of government guarantees for non-censorship of the Internet".

These are mere pretext to justify illegal file-sharing and profit-making at the expense of the livelihoods of thousands of individuals in the creative industries, he added.

private bay story Last week, the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC)  had announced that 10 websites, including Pirate Bay and Megaupload, have been blocked as they infringe copyright laws.

Users, however, have lamented that companies pay such websites premium fees to send high resolution files like commissioned digital artwork electronically.

Norman, however, said the issue should be simply “what is illegal offline is also illegal online.”

“Upholding the rule of law cannot and must not be done away with if civil society is to exist. The MCMC and (Ministry of Domestic Trade Cooperatives and Consumerism) MDTCC's recent actions (against piracy) are not about the shutting down or censorship of websites.

“It is about addressing the commission of criminal offences, namely copyright piracy in this case.

“Insisting that the Government retracts its actions here and ceases from doing anything remotely resembling 'censorship of the Internet' despite clear breaches of law would be akin to saying that websites promoting terrorism or paedophilia should also be left to proliferate.”

azlan RIM also decried the “lucrative advertising revenue” that one particular website specialising in providing pirated Malaysian music recordings for illegal file-sharing has been reaping which has been operating for many years with impunity.

Condemning such enterprises as having “highly destructive effects on the local music industry”, RIM said it trusts that the MCMC will continue to take similar action based on the MDTCC's recommendations to stop such activities.

It also cited the inordinate share of bandwidth and the slowing down of connections speeds caused by illegal file-sharers, which provides reason enough for ISP industry players and legitimate broadband users “who actually end up subsidising the internet costs of such copyright free-loaders” to oppose the former.

“The music industry is hopeful that pending amendments to the Copyright Act will address the issue of ISP liability to additional legal impetus to the ISP industry to cooperate closely with the creative industries in addressing online piracy,” said Norman.

In response to the clampdown by the authorities, an Internet vigilante group Anonymous has threatened to launch hacking attacks on government websites for the government's censorship move.

The hacker group had said it would target the government's online portal from today 19.30 GMT (3.30am tomorrow) to teach the country a lesson for censoring whistle-blower site WikiLeaks.

Malaysia could be the latest in a cyber-war waged by the activists, who gained prominence when they temporarily crippled the websites of MasterCard and Paypal that cut off financial services to WikiLeaks.

A spate of cyber attacks on multinational firms and institutions, from Citigroup to the International Monetary Fund, has raised concerns that governments and the private sector may struggle to defend against hackers.

Inspector-general of police Ismail Oma said various government agencies were bracing for the cyber attack, and will investigate the threat.

"There are many agencies involved in this and we will get to the bottom of this," police chief Ismail Omar told Reuters .