Techdirt. Stories filed under "malaysia" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "malaysia"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Thu, 13 Sep 2012 23:57:00 PDT Malaysian Government Holding Service Providers Liable For The Actions Of Their Users Zachary Knight http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120901/02541620247/malaysian-government-holding-service-providers-liable-actions-their-users.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120901/02541620247/malaysian-government-holding-service-providers-liable-actions-their-users.shtml
Of course this hasn't stopped people from attempting to drag service providers into legal complaints. For instance, we have the occasions when Twitter is sued for the actions of its users because it is mistakenly thought to be the publisher of the tweets. Or when the entertainment industry wants to hold Google responsible for Android apps that may allow for file sharing. There are many many more stories like these. Luckily, courts and most law makers understand that service providers cannot or should not be held liable for the actions of their users. Most, anyway.

Jeffrey Nonken Has alerted us to a recent law passed in Malaysia that would hold everyone from the website to the ISP to the coffee house with open wifi to the owner of a borrowed computer responsible for the online postings of a single person.
Section 114A of the bill seeks “to provide for the presumption of fact in publication in order to facilitate the identification and proving of the identity of an anonymous person involved in publication through the internet.” In other words, the section makes it easier for law enforcement authorities to trace the person who has uploaded or published material posted online.

According to the amended law, however, the originators of the content are those who own, administer, and/or edit websites, blogs, and online forums. Also included in the amendment are persons who offer webhosting services or internet access. And lastly, the owner of the computer or mobile device used to publish content online is also covered under section 114A.
This language had the internet-using public in Malaysia in an uproar, and they protested this law in much the same fashion as the protests over SOPA and ACTA. When these protests were finally heard, the Prime minister had the law reviewed, but to no avail.
When the petition was ignored by the government, netizens and media groups organized an online blackout on August 14, which succeeded in mobilizing thousands of internet users. The global attention which the action generated was likely what convinced the Prime Minister to agree to have the cabinet review the controversial amendments. Although this announcement was initially welcomed by opponents of the amendments, the Cabinet ultimately upheld the amended law.
As we know, these kinds of laws have a strong potential for abuse -- one of the primary reasons US citizens opposed SOPA and CISPA. Giving a government the ability to prosecute a whole string of people only tenuously connected to a potential crime is a recipe for disaster. It will open up the ability for the government to stifle free speech even if it doesn't have to lift a finger. What will happen is that sites will now over-filter comments to avoid liability. Businesses that offered free wifi will potentially cut the service in an effort to avoid prosecution. This law will cause damage to the ability of Malaysian citizens to communicate freely over the internet.

This move to apply such harsh secondary liability is nothing surprising from a nation that supports internet filters which it promises will not be used to punish political dissent. Or the country whose courts, as part of a sentence for defamation, ordered a man to post his apology 100 times on Twitter. With the record that Malaysia has on internet freedom, it is no surprise that the outcome was what it was. However, we hope that the citizens of Malaysia continue their protests, and that those who support and passed this law will repeal it. 

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]]> what-could-go-wrong http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120901/02541620247 Thu, 9 Aug 2012 00:17:26 PDT Malaysian Government Backing Away From TPP Support: Worried About Locking Up Medicine Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120807/03410619952/malaysian-government-backing-away-tpp-support-worried-about-locking-up-medicine.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120807/03410619952/malaysian-government-backing-away-tpp-support-worried-about-locking-up-medicine.shtml Chile were questioning what benefit there was to being locked into the US's rules. And, now, another TPP negotiating member, Malaysia, seems to be questioning the agreement. The report claims that the government is now against TPP, though the actual article really only highlights the (significant) concerns from Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, who claims that TPP "would be detrimental to the local medical industry."
"We are against the patent extension. According to the agreement, if a medicine is launched in the US, and then three years later it is launched in Malaysia, the patent would start from when it is launched here and not when it was launched earlier in the US," said Liow. "This is not fair."
The end result, he warns, is that the TPP would make healthcare less affordable to citizens of Malaysia. Hopefully he really does represent the views of the Malaysian government and they really are considering dropping out over this issue.

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]]> good-for-them http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120807/03410619952 Thu, 2 Jun 2011 12:40:00 PDT Malaysian Man Required To 'Retract' Defamatory Tweet 100 Times On Twitter; Streisanding The Whole Thing Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110602/11280814527/malaysian-man-required-to-retract-defamatory-tweet-100-times-twitter-streisanding-whole-thing.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110602/11280814527/malaysian-man-required-to-retract-defamatory-tweet-100-times-twitter-streisanding-whole-thing.shtml OnTheMedia point us to a bizarre story in Malaysia where a man was accused of defaming a publishing company on Twitter. The guy, Fahmi Fadzil, had tweeted back in January that a friend of his, who was pregnant at the time, was being mistreated by her employer, Female Magazine (owned by Blu Inc. Media). To atone for the "defamation," as part of the settlement he worked out, he's required to tweet an apology 100 times, like a child writing punishment on a chalkboard. You can see the first such tweet here:
If you can't see that image, the text reads:
1/100 I've DEFAMED Blu Inc Media & Female Magazine. My tweets on their HR Policies are untrue. I retract those words & hereby apologize
Of course, the end result isn't too surprising to anyone who understands the internet. The Twitter retraction barrage has, of course, attracted all sorts of additional attention, leading to the creation of a specific hashtag for the situation, #defahmi, and lots of additional Twitter conversation, much of it critical of Blu Inc. and Family Magazine -- including at least one tweet telling people to call the company to complain. It kind of makes you wonder if Fadzil agreed to this "settlement" knowing that it would backfire in a big bad way on Blu.

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]]> twitter-is-the-new-blackboard http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110602/11280814527 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:29:00 PST Malaysia's New Copyright Act To Make Owning A Single Counterfeit DVD Illegal Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100120/1857317846.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100120/1857317846.shtml Copycense points us to the latest out of Malaysia, where an amendment to the Copyright Act would making owning a single counterfeit DVD illegal. Yes, just owning it. In most places, it's distributing or reproducing that causes infringement. But now we're adding owning to the list. Imagine buying what you thought was a legitimate DVD and then being dragged to court for it. That seems reasonable.

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]]> can't-have-any-sort-of-competition http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100120/1857317846 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:01:00 PDT Malaysia Looking To Copyright Food? Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090920/0226476245.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090920/0226476245.shtml it owns hummus and other middle eastern foods, such as falafel, tabouleh and baba gannouj, and that no other country could produce them. It seems that other parts of the world are seeing the same sort of thing, as Malaysia is trying to declare that it owns popular Malaysian dishes, like nasi lemak. It doesn't seem entirely clear what this means, and the article is a bit vague (the title mentions "copyright," but the rest of the article does not). Still, it's certainly yet another sign of the times, when it feels natural to some people to do totally ridiculous things in claiming "ownership" of ideas.

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]]> this-again? http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090920/0226476245 Mon, 10 Aug 2009 01:11:22 PDT Malaysia Wants To Filter The Internet, But Swears It Won't Be Used To Stop Political Dissent Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090808/1014015808.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090808/1014015808.shtml love-hate affair with citizens and opposing politicians using blogs and other social media to protest the government -- and has even sent opposition bloggers they don't like to jail. So, you can imagine the concern when the government announced plans to install widespread internet filters modeled on China's fault "Green Dam" software. Not surprisingly, the government officials back the plan insist it won't be used against political targets, but just obscene material. Opponents find that hard to believe. Even if (and it's a big "if") that's the intent of the government, having it be so easy to "accidentally" start blocking opposition sites is probably too tempting for many.

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]]> yeah,-sure... http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090808/1014015808 Fri, 7 Nov 2008 12:56:29 PST Former Malaysian Prime Minister Now Blogging His Opposition To Press Restrictions He Set Up Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081106/1759192762.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081106/1759192762.shtml political blogging in Malaysia. The government there has had something of a love-hate affair with blogs for quite some time, starting with a plan to force blogs to register, to later telling various candidates for government they were requiring them to blog, to having a special agency set up to respond to bloggers. More recently, though, things have taken a very negative turn, as various opposition party bloggers were able to use their blog popularity to catapult themselves into office, the ruling party began cracking down, even sentencing leading bloggers to jail.

The good news on that front, however, is that a court has decided that the arrest was illegal and the blogger is to be freed. Though, you get the feeling that the government will continue to try to punish him.

In the meantime, one of the most interesting political bloggers in Malaysia may be the former Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, who apparently championed many of the free speech restrictions that allow the crackdowns. We had mentioned his embrace of blogging about a year and a half ago, and now the NY Times has written up a more detailed article, claiming that now that he's no longer in power, he's had quite a change of heart concerning restrictions on freedom of the press. Of course, much of it seems to come off as whining that people won't listen to him any more:
"Where is the press freedom? Broadcast what I have to say! What I say is not even accurately published in the press!"
While it is a good thing that he's realized how problematic free speech restrictions are, there is a bit of karmic justice in having him find himself stymied by rules that he championed and used to his own advantage when in power.

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]]> what's-good-for-the-goose? http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20081106/1759192762 Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:58:00 PDT Malaysia Jails Blogger For Two Years Without Trial Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080923/1125352347.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080923/1125352347.shtml released following a public outcry, it was actually a different blogger than the original one we had reported as arrested. It now turns out that the original blogger has actually been immediately sentenced to two years in jail without any trial -- and those two years can be extended indefinitely at will by the government. As for the other blogger who was released, apparently that's just a temporary thing, as he's still facing charges as well. Apparently, the ruling party seems to think that by jailing opposition bloggers it will shut them up. This wouldn't be the first time that the government underestimated the response to trying to silence critical bloggers.

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]]> public-outcry-didn't-work http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080923/1125352347 Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:39:31 PDT Arrested Malaysian Blogger Freed Following Public Outcry Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080922/0351532331.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080922/0351532331.shtml elected). Last week, we noted that one of the more popular bloggers, whose blog had been ordered blocked by ISPs was arrested, just as the block on his blog was removed. Not surprisingly, the arrest led to a public outcry, and the government has now relented and freed the blogger, who quickly posted an anti-government rant on his blog, promising not to back down. The whole thing makes you wonder how tone deaf the leading party politicians in Malaysia are that they didn't expect this to happen. Arresting an opposition blogger was bound to create further outcry, and this move only helped legitimize the points he's been making. You would think that at least someone in the ruling party would have been savvy enough to recognize that this was inevitable.

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]]> how-could-the-gov't-not-expect-that? http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080922/0351532331 Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:08:00 PDT Malaysia Stops Blocking Opposition Blog... But Arrests Its Founder Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080915/0055182266.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080915/0055182266.shtml register with the government. After that failed, the ruling party looked, for a bit, as if it might be trying to understand and embrace blogs. It set up an agency just to respond to blogs and even told certain of its own candidates for office that they needed to blog themselves. However, apparently it was the opposition party that embraced blogging much more -- and even a few of the bigger name bloggers got themselves elected. In response? The government demanded that ISPs block certain blogs, including the very popular Malaysia Today.

The latest news is that the government has rescinded the ban... but has arrested the site's founder. That doesn't seem like the best way to get bloggers on their side. It never fails to amaze me why politicians seek to shut up those who oppose them. What's wrong with actually responding and letting people understand the multiple positions? If you're confident that your position is the correct one, then why not convince people that's the case?

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]]> not-very-comforting http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080915/0055182266 Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:47:00 PDT As Bloggers Take Office In Malaysia, Gov't Orders ISPs To Block Certain Blogs Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080828/2301332130.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080828/2301332130.shtml slammed blogs and tried to pass a law requiring bloggers to register with the government. Outrage over such a plan resulted in it being scrapped, but the majority ruling party still struggled with blogs -- though tried to figure out ways to respond to them more feasibly than attacking them. It set up a gov't agency to respond to bloggers, and later required certain candidates for offices to set up their own blogs. Of course, it also tried to crack down on some bloggers it didn't like, including having a state owned paper file a libel suit over a blog.

So, with that background, it was interesting to spot two separate stories having to do with blogs in Malaysia. The first, talks about how one of the political bloggers who had been so critical of the gov't turned that attention into getting himself elected as an opposition candidate. He's now taking office. However, the other article shows that the ruling party hasn't quite come to grips with these opposition blogs. Perhaps because of the victories of blogging members of the opposition party, the government has now ordered Malaysian ISPs to start blocking certain political blogs.

From the sound of it, the ruling party is still pretty confused about how this all works. While it gave lip service to blogging, when blogging appeared to help the opposition a lot more than it helped the ruling party, it decided to start blocking and censoring certain blogs critical of the government. This seems pretty likely to backfire, as it should only upset gov't critics even more -- including those who are now in the Parliament itself.

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]]> crack-down http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080828/2301332130 Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:09:36 PDT Malaysian Politicians Go From Hating Blogs To Requiring Them In Record Time Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080411/115829825.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080411/115829825.shtml register themselves with the government if they wanted to keep blogging. That resulted in an uproar, and the politicians backed down on the registration requirement. In fact, they started to check out blogs a little more carefully, and even liked what they saw. By the end of that same month, the government agreed to set up a special government agency to follow blogs and interact with bloggers to respond to any concerns they might have. Fast forward a year and not only do some of the original leading critics of blogging have their own blogs, but the ruling political party is now requiring many of its political candidates to blog. Anyone who wants a "youth post" needs to have a blog. The guy in charge of the party's youth wing explained: "All candidates must have blogs. If not, they are not qualified to be leaders."

So they've gone from hating blogs to requiring them in about a year. To be fair, a lot of this is politically motivated. Apparently the opposition has been getting plenty of attention because its leader has a popular blog. So this is likely a politically motivated response. Also, it seems almost equally as extreme as the original plan to require bloggers to register. Not everyone should blog. Not everyone wants to blog. Requiring a politician to have a blog, even if it's helpful, seems a bit extreme. It certainly won't lead to good content if people are forced to blog, rather than blogging for a good reason.

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]]> well-how-about-that http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080411/115829825