Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs enforcement division head Mohd Roslan Mahayudin was quoted in The Sun as saying that informers were also widely used due to a shortage of staff for this particular long-term operation.
"Piracy is a tough nut to crack in Malaysia...the root of the problem is, and always will be, corruption," said one industry watcher. He cited instances whereby despite being raided several times, the same vendor would be back on the street in a matter of days.
But one Microsoft executive blamed it on technology and not low-tech greed.
"The problem is that the pirates have just as much technology as us," said Butt Wai Choon, Microsoft Malaysia managing director, in an interview today.
"With the use of digital technology, they (pirates) can copy our content despite (Microsoft) incorporating the latest anti-piracy features in our products" he said, adding that numerous clandestine activities are conducted in Malaysia.
Roland Chan, Business Software Alliance (BSA) regional marketing manager for Asia Pacific, said that he was disappointed that the public had chosen to ignore pleas against the use of pirated software.
Chan said that the greatest threat facing BSA is end-user piracy, especially among corporations. "This is where companies buy just a handful of licensed software and then illegally copy them for the rest of the computers in the organization," he said.
The BSA works closely with government enforcement officials in tackling software piracy.
Last year, about 300 companies in Malaysia were subject to court action after being found guilty of such practices. A BSA report in May indicated that Malaysia had a 66 percent software piracy rate in 2000, down 5 percent from the previous year.
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