Recording industry mulls setting website for musical ringtone

KUCHING: Handphone owners who loves to download the latest ringtone of popular songs from the internet or from handphone dealers may soon have an avenue to download them legally.

Public Performance Malaysia Sdn. Bhd (PPM) chief executive officer, Tan Ngiap Foo said the Recording Industry Association of Malaysia (RIM) with the assistance of composers, recording companies, telecommunication companies, mobile phone dealers and Internet Service Providers (ISP) will create a special website to enable handphone owners to download the latest ringtones.

"We are almost in the final stage," he told reporters at the sidelines of a one-day seminar on "Copyright Licensing in Malaysia", here Friday. Describing the present trend of downloading original songs for ringtones as serious, Tan claimed that 50 percent of the record dealers that sells original CDs and cassettes in the country are expected to close shop by the end of this year due to the trend of ringtone piracy while 30 percent had shut down their businesses.

He said the ringtone piracy needs to be addressed urgently as it would cripple the recording industry in the long run. "The industry is not against them selling the ringtone but as long as the composers and the recording companies get paid as stated by the law, it is alright with us," he said.

He said ringtone piracy is a serious criminal offence as stipulated under Section 41 of the Copyright Act 1987 which provide a penalty of minimum RM2,000 per song or a maximum RM20,000 per song or five years imprisonment or both. Tan also said that ringtone sellers do not have official permission from the copyright owners. He claimed losses suffered by the recording industry by ringtone piracy was estimated at RM10 million a year. - Bernama



dBOS-fm: Kurang pastilah sejauh mana masalah ni sudah melanda lagu-lagu tempatan Sabah. Harap-harap belum ada piracy yang dimaksudkan.