By Kazi Mahmood, IOL South East Asia correspondent

KUALA LUMPUR, October 8 (IslamOnline) - Software and movie piracy is a well known phenomenon in Malaysia, but a new form of piracy has taken shape recently hurting genuine local businesses, an expert on the issue told IslamOnline on Monday, October 7.

Books and locally produced Islamic CDs are now targeted by nationwide piracy syndicates, leaving the victims to seek legal redress or abandon their copyrighted materials to the pirates.

Several local companies have complained to the authorities without any action against the pirates due to lack of evidence and weaknesses in anti-piracy laws, the experts said.

The owner of a publication firm based in Kuala Lumpur told IslamOnline that his best selling books were the targets of piracy by organized groups determined to violate local copyright laws to make quick money.

“We had this problem a few years ago when one of our most popular books was pirated and was being sold outright on the market,” Mohamad A. Ghani who owns the Darul Numan Publications said.

He added that it was not easy to go through the process of suing those responsible for the piracy, as it did not give any result. “End of the day, we lose money suing these people, and we lose money too with our books being pirated,”

Another local firm, based in Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur complained that the law was not strong enough to punish those found responsible of piracy.

The company produces multimedia CDs with Islamic contents and is based on interactive learning. It says it is the victim of piracy too, lambasting the lack of enforcement to prevent such crimes.

Raids launched against the printers of pirated books and manufacturers of the pirated CDs did not hamper the growing business of piracy in Malaysia, others claim.

Book publishing is a booming business in the country, with several publishers making it big in the market. Most of the established book publishers have several hundred titles on a variety of issues.

The most pirated books are Islamic books and educational books. The syndicates print thousands of copies of these books and distribute them to local vendors under nose of local authorities, Syed Ahmad who writes for a Tamil newspaper in Kuala Lumpur told IslamOnline.

He added that he wrote several articles on the issue, sounding the alarm to the authorities and the local publishers to be more careful and attentive to the matter.

“It is believed that people who have huge financial capacity to indulge in mass production of pirated titles are involved in these syndicates and that they may be the same people who are in the business of software and VCD piracy,” Ahmad said.

A few years ago, Malaysia adopted strict laws to curb piracy and it is only this year that law enforcement has given some positive results. Nevertheless, the extent of piracy is so huge that it will take a few more years and a lot of investigative methods to rid the country of the venom of piracy, IslamOnline was told.

“When it comes to software, it is understandable that people cannot afford original versions at exorbitant prices. For example a copy of Adobe Photoshop in Malaysia costs U.S.$1500, which is the street retail price.

“A pirated version of the software that comes with plug-ins and other associated software costs only U.S.$2 per CD. It is obvious that people will buy the pirated version unless a solution is found by software publishers or vendors to make their products more affordable,” Ahmad said.

He added it was incredible that the syndicates were now targeting Islamic books and Islamic CDs that are already cheap and affordable to the public. He and the producers of the books and CDs are certain that the aim of the syndicates is to undermine the local businesses.

Ghani said there seemed no immediate solution to the problem, which was aired on a local popular TV station a week ago. “If they can show on TV that piracy is so entrenched in this country, then imagine how difficult it will be to get rid of this practice,” another book publisher complained.

The local authorities, aware of this situation, have launched a massive anti-piracy campaign in Malaysia. Starting from September 1 this year, local enforcement officers have the green light to raid suspected companies and stores for pirated software versions, movies and other CDs, but books are not in the list.

It is the duty of the publishers and writers altogether, as well as their distributors, to approach the authorities so that special attention is given to book piracy, an enforcement officer working for a division of the local municipality said.