The government of Malaysia has taken some significant actions to protect intellectual property rights over the past several years, specifically, against those engaged in pirate production, wholesale, retail, and distribution through new technologies such as Internet or mobile devices.

The overall reduction of movie piracy in Malaysia resulted in the opening of more cinemas in 2007 and increased revenues in the form of double-digit growth for theatrical businesses, continuing an upward trend seen over the past several years. Meanwhile, for the music industry, the enforcement efforts of the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, which included warning letters and raids against pirate retailers in fixed premises, including those engaged in mobile device piracy, has resulted in over 350 dealers turning from pirate to legitimate business. Book publishers have seen some moves within MDTCA toward greater emphasis on tackling illegal photocopying, and cooperated with MDTCA on a number of successful raids near significant universities during 2007.

The business software industry continues to enjoy excellent support of the authorities, leading in 2007 with 30 actions investigating end-user piracy of business software involving 53 companies. For Malaysia, this represents the greatest number of raids involving the greatest number of target companies in any year. In October 2007, the entertainment software industry launched an enforcement program with the MPA in Malaysia to address game piracy with the MDTCA in the “Operation Games Attack” initiative aimed at reducing the country’s large-scale replication and global export of pirated game product. These efforts have resulted in numerous raids with dozens of arrests, and the seizure of tens of thousands of pirated games.