February 25, 2006
Recording Industry Mulls Setting Website For Musical Ringtone
Handphone owners who loves to download the latest ringtone of popular songs from the Internet or from mobile phone dealers may soon have an avenue to download them legally, reports Bernama.com, Malaysia's National News Agency.
The Recording Industry Association of Malaysia (RIM) with the assistance of composers, recording companies, telecommunication companies, mobile phone dealers and Internet Service Providers will create a special website to enable mobile phone owners to download the latest ringtones.
Ringtone piracy needs to be addresed urgently as it would cripple the recording industry in the long run.
Ringtone piracy is a serious criminal offence as stipulated under Section 41 of the Copyright Act 1987 which provides a penalty of minimum RM2,000 ($ 540.- ) per song or a maximum RM20,000 ($ 5'400.- ) per song or five years imprisonment or both.
... Ringtone sellers do not have official permission from the copyright owners. ...Losses suffered by the recording industry from ringtone piracy was estimated at RM10 million a year."
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