Malaysia launches Infringing Website List initiative to combat digital piracy
Move aims to cut advertising revenue to country’s pirate websites
By Masriwanie Muhamading
Malaysia is now the third country in the Asia Pacific region to launch the Infringing Website List (IWL) initiative in the effort to combat digital piracy of copyrighted content such as music, films, software, broadcasts and books.
Stakeholders from the Malaysian creative and advertising communities—including Media Prima Bhd, Astro, Communications and Multimedia Content Forum of Malaysia (CMCF), Motion Picture Association (MPA), Centre for Content Promotion and Media Specialists Association (MSA)—have joined forces to set up the IWL initiative which aims to cut off advertising revenue flowing to major pirate websites in the country.
MPA International consultant, Sam Shafie, said the IWL programme involves identifying a list of the most popular pirate websites in Malaysia, sharing the list with advertisers, and removing any advertisements found to be placed on those websites.
“Most of the time, advertisers may not be aware that their client’s advertisements were placed in these pirate websites. With IWL, what we want to do is to warn the advertisers on the matter so that they can take action to remove the advertisement from the particular website.
“This way the pirate website will no longer be able gain revenue from the particular advertisement,” he told the New Straits Times at the Content Piracy Forum.