RETAILERS of pirated movies and music are
selling their wares at rock bottom prices after authorities ordered them to
clear their stock of illegal reproductions or face fines and possible jail
time.
Vendors
told The Brunei Times that the Municipal Board had issued warning letters to
retailers stating that the sale of infringing material could be punished by up
to six months' imprisonment and a $5,000 fine under the Copyright Order.
"We
were given a time frame to clear pirated discs, so we have been selling them
for $1 per disc to get rid of all our stock. We usually sell it for
$2.50," said Jenny, a salesperson at Chong Hock Music Centre, Kiulap.
"I
don't know if this is temporary or permanent but maybe in the future we will
have to switch to selling original DVDs."
Pirated
copies of the latest box office hits are an almost ubiquitous sight in the
Sultanate, with discs being sold for between $2 to $12, depending on the
quality of the reproduction.
With
word of the latest government sweep of pirated material, shops have been
selling their items at rock bottom prices, with signs stating "no testing,
no returns".
"We
haven't been selling new movies for a few weeks," said a salesperson at CK
Tang Enterprise, who preferred to remain anonymous. "We were given an
extension to clear our stock but I'm not sure how much longer we have."
Retailers
have been left wondering whether this latest move will lead to stricter
enforcement of copyright laws, or if the latest round of warnings is "just
for show".
A
spokesperson for the Royal Brunei Police Force said their main task would be
enforcing the warnings handed out by the Municipal Board.
"There
is no operation targeting pirate retailers at the moment, but the police can at
any time perform spot checks on these shops to see if they are complying with
the law," he said.
From
time to time, authorities have raided vendors and ordered them to dispose of
all infringing material only to see the items crop back up in stores within a
matter of weeks. A survey by the Recording Industry of Malaysia in October 2011
counted some 50 retail outlets offering pirated movies, music and software in
the form of DVDs, CDs, and VCDs.
US-based
anti-piracy watchdog, International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), said
Brunei remains stuck in a complaint-based system, with local authorities
unwilling to terminate trading licenses of pirate retailers.
In a
report published last February, the IIPA lambasted authorities for providing
weak deterrents for copyright violators and lamented the sluggish court process
which takes several months to resolve a few copyright cases.
"The
penalty structure is extremely low (both in terms of imprisonment and fines),
so even in successful cases, there will be no deterrent effect," stated
the IIPA. The maximum penalty for copyright infringement is six months'
imprisonment and a $5,000 fine.
The
report from IIPA lead to Brunei being placed on the US Trade Representative
Office (USTR) "watch list" of intellectual property rights (IPR)
violators for the fourth year.
The
news, while not unexpected, puts pressures on Brunei to quickly improve the
apparatus to reduce its "high piracy and counterfeiting rates", if
they want to be part of an Asia-Pacific free trade pact, known as the Trans
Pacific Partnership.
Parties
of the trade agreement — currently being negotiated by the US, Brunei,
Singapore, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam
— will have to meet "strong standards" of IPR protection and
enforcement.
The
USTR noted that Brunei had made progress to enhance its status as a supporter
of IPR by setting up a patents office and the Bruneian Authors and Composers
Association which collects royalties for local artistes.
QURATUL-AIN
BANDIAL
The
Brunei Times
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