U.S. assistant secretary of commerce for market access and compliance, William Lash, has criticized Malaysia's plans to curb enormous entertainment piracy by forcing publishers to lower prices claiming that only way to curb piracy is to impose tougher penalties, such as prison sentences, for pirates.
Mr. Lash flew to Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, to pressure Malaysian government to drop its idea to get the entertainment prices down. He said that the American business losses in Malaysia due piracy were down from 2001 figures of $316M to $242M in 2002, mostly due harder policy towards piracy. He called for prison sentences to professional pirates and more active role from Malaysian government in fight against piracy.
Mr. Yassin was quoted today to have said "What is suitable for us, we do that way."
Sources:
MSNBC #1
MSNBC #2







