Deputy Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister S Subramaniam o­n Wednesday suggested that the public stopped buying original CDs and VCDs temporarily so that producers and distributors will be forced to reduce the prices.

He said that the expensive prices of the original stuff was the reason for people to buy pirated copies. His comments come in the wake of an all-out battle by his ministry to reek out pirated CDs, VCDs and DVDs.

In the past month, the abundance of these pirated stuff, including the freely- and cheaply-available pornographic VCDs, had caught the attention of many political leaders, including the premier and his deputy.

It is true that people turn to pirated stuff because they are cheap and easily available, but the temporary "freeze" o­n buying the original product alone might not eradicate the piracy menace.

Below is a list of other things that could be done that may solve this piracy problem o­nce and for all.

1) Continue the efforts to phase out pirated CDs, VCDs and DVDs

Very often we see similar efforts just taper off after a couple of weeks' harassment against the pedlars who sell these products. There must be a concentrated effort involving all agencies concerned - including the various municipal councils and city halls - under the guidance of the domestic trade and consumer affairs ministry.

They must also ensure that it's not o­nly the pedlars who are targeted, but also the big fish - the o­nes who produce and make the big money out of this venture. Most times we see that these street pedlars are brought to magistrate's courts and fined between RM1,000 and RM5,000 for selling these products.

Before the current campaign started, the pedlars were imposed much lower fines. Lessons must be made of these pedlars and a consistent fine must be meted out.

As for the bigger players - the manufacturers and distributers - the ministry must start throwing the books at them too. It will be ludicrous if o­nly small-time sellers are brought to the courts.

Even now, these brains behind the pirated products have already found alternative ways to sell their ware. o­ne way is by leaving contact details around for potential buyers to order what they want.

Government agencies can also be more vigilant when allowing disc processing machineries into the country. The manufacturers bring in these machineries under the pretext of using them for other purposes.

2) Create public awareness

Why mustn't we buy pirated products? Is it because they are illegal? If yes, why are they illegal?

Because the government earns nothing out of them. That's the bottom line. It has nothing to do with us aiding and abetting the producers of these pirated VCDs in stealing the fruits of someone else's labour.

The present advertisement campaign by the ministry against buying pirated products is at most funny, but ineffective. Cinema-goers laugh when the VCD seller in the advertisement turns into a skull-head, but o­ne gets the impression the underlying message that the ministry wants to portray is that your CD/VCD/DVD player gets spoilt if you use pirated products.

Yes, yes, that's true too, but what else? How about telling the public that fund/tax generated from original products can be channeled towards societal common good.

Will the public buy this? That depends o­n how the ministry makes use of its advertising consultants.

3) Slash cinema ticket prices

The normal cinema ticket price is RM9 and in most night markets, o­ne can get three VCDs for that price.

The price of the ticket makes a big difference for a family man. If he wants to take his wife and three kids - the national average of children per household is five - he will have to fork out a tidy sum.

Simple economics will tell him: "Buy (pirated) VCDs". And he is not likely to feel guilty about his action because at the end of the day, it will not create a big dent in his wallet.

On top of that, he is also permitted to change bad copies with the pedlars.

Secondly, he will also be able to watch the movies at his leisure. There is no need to beat the rush hour to get to the cinema, no long wait at queues to buy tickets, no losing of temper or getting annoyed with other patrons who yak continuously o­n their mobile without consideration for others and other disruptions and irritations in the cinema.

And if he is really interested in any particular scenes, there is no way he can ask the cinema operator to run it over again!

4) Build more libraries

People watch movies for want of a better entertainment or because they don't have anything else better to do. This is true especially when the o­nly other thing people do in big cities is to roam the malls, without having any intention to buy anything.

And it gets worse in small towns where most probably there is o­nly o­ne cinema around and the o­nly other way to stay entertained is to either watch a pirated VCD or increase the size of the family.

If the government can have some form of substitute to this, like having more libraries and keeping them open till late at night, then people may find the library another worthwhile option to spend their free time.

It will not o­nly encourage a reading society, but will also ensure that our people, youths in particular, are engaged in a meaningful pursuit and not idling their time away.

However for this to happen, the government would need to spend more money in building new libraries across the country. At present, all we have are state libraries and a handful of district libraries that are not well-stocked.

5) Have CD/VCD collections in libraries

There is nothing novel in this idea. It is being done elsewhere. The idea is to have a stock of CDs and VCDs at libraries so that the public can rent them.

The government can get the manufacturers to donate in kind towards this collection and it can also use some of the money gained from these legal manufacturers to purchase the products.

It works the same way as borrowing books. All you need is to be a member of the library.

If this is implemented, there are at least two objectives the government can achieve: o­ne, to attract more people to the library, and in turn inculcate a reading society.

And secondly, this might turn people away from buying pirated products as they can get it for free, or perhaps at a low price at the libraries.

6) Allow controlled adult content

This may sound too radical, even not implementable, especially in a self-proclaimed Islamic country. But o­n the other hand, smut is readily available o­n the Internet.

It's no secret that among the biggest selling pirated VCDs are porn VCDs. Just look at the manner the public snatched the two recent "home-made" smut movies involving MAS crew and an actress caught in an uncompromising position with her husband.

What the government can do is to allow adults a controlled access of such movies in satellite channels. These shows can either be shown at a specific time or through pay-per-view channels.

Market forces will determine the success or failure of this plan and but at least it might stop the VCD manufacturers from flooding the neighbourhood streets with porn VCDs.

7) Do nothing

Following our penchant for the superlatives (the biggest, largest, longest etc), perhaps we should not do anything to eradicate this piracy problem so that it can find an entry into the national record books.

We can put it under the category of "favourite national past time", or even under "the single largest activity undertaken by most of the population".

It will be o­n par with our other achievements like baking the biggest cake, or organising the largest dinner.

Also, the whole piracy issue is about business competition. It's a money making venture and both the original as well as piracy manufacturers of CDs/VCDs realise this. They know too that the cost of manufacturing these discs can be as low as 30 sen.

Given that, we should then let the business entities to solve this problem. They can start by slashing prices. Remember business competition is o­nly good for the consumer.

Alternatively, they can enter into partnerships. Joint ventures between legitimate manufacturers and illegal o­nes will also see a better marketing strategy where good quality products can be made available everywhere, at a lower price.

As it is, all the necessity requirements - such as machineries, trading areas and ready made customers - are in place. The o­nly problem is that the profit margin, especially for the legal manufacturers, may slump!

K Kabilan is chief news editor of malaysiakini.