Long Heng: disc piracy crackdown in Cambodia in 2009

Cambodia destroyed 400,000 pirated discs with committing more crackdowns timely.
Cambodian ministry of culture and fine arts in cooperation with internal security department of ministry of interior and other involving authorities on Tuesday 5 used a bulldozer to crush as many as 400,000 counterfeit CDs and DVDs which confiscated from the crackdowns in the late six months of this year ( from July to December in 2009) across the country. The ceremony destroyed those CDs and DVDs held in front of Wat Phnom, Phnom Penh. “all these pirated CDs and DVDs were confiscated from DVDs pirating places in Phnom Penh and Kandal province and some of them were confiscated from markets and DVDs shops In Phnom Penh where were being sold illegally and some sold without licensing visa from the ministry,” Khim Sarith, secretary of state of ministry of the culture and fine arts said at the ceremony. Khim Sarith also is chairman of the committee of inter-ministries for crackdown of illegal movies. “The offender are using all kinds of ways to make business on CDs and DVDs illegally across the country to serve the own benefit,” he said, adding that their actions are making the society trouble and it has affected the morality in society and our dignified culture. We need to crack down on these issues timely and make more effort with effectively,” he said.
“Some of these discs are foreign pornography discs which imported or bought from foreign countries and downloaded from the website on internet, and the local offenders reproduced to sell those discs at the local markets and those porn discs was dangerous for the society because those porn discs made our adult and youth commit the rape on girl minors after they watched those movies and they could not control themselves and it affected the morality seriously”. “And therefore we need to crack down on those illegal and counterfeit discs,” he stresses. Even we are conducting the crackdowns regularly in cooperation with ministry of interior and other local authorities,”the offenders also have new and modern strategies and trick with us,” he noted.
For this late six months of this year, we raided 52 times in all eight khan “districts” in Phnom Penh and neighboring Kandal province of Phnom Penh and also found 255 places that sold illegal and counterfeit discs and at the same time we confiscated 163 machines of DVDs and CDs write in secret places , and 54 sets of cases system CD copy and other copying materials. “The offenders copied those discs without legitimate ways with large scale in secret places and hired the poor boys to sell those discs at the markets and restaurants or some snack shops, or whole sale or retail to disc vendors,” he said, adding that our film industries in country also affected a part from these actions. “Owners of movie industries also complained to us about those discs and it could not make business in country or had difficulties for their products,” he noted.
Most illegal and counterfeit discs have been found at the wealthy areas like Phnom Penh, Kandal, and other main tourist destinations, he noted. “Last year we confiscated about illegal 100,000 discs and we also destroyed them publicly, he said, adding that we will continue to crack down on other provincial areas across the country to provide the confidence with movie productions in their business and protect the morality of the country. In the first sixth months of this year, we confiscated more than 180,000 pirated DVDs and VCDs in Phnom Penh and other provinces and destroyed them through rolling them with the bulldozer here. 157,316 of over 180,000 discs were seized in Phnom Penh, while those discs were taken from shops in Kandal, Kompong Cham and Ratanakkiri provinces. "Most of the discs were karaoke DVDs and Khmer films, he said.
Additionally, Sao Bun Thoeurn, deputy director of internal security department of interior ministry and he also is the deputy chairman of the committee of inter-ministries of crackdown of illegal movies said that “From now on we also have our future directions such as continuing to cooperate on seeking for the big secret places that stored and copied the discs illegally” across the country. “We need to do on these tasks with victory and effectiveness” he added.
“We have to push on these work to make our investors and businesspeople warmly especially the movies industry and we implement to practice the law of copyrights and property rights that we have,” he said, adding that we continue to cooperate with local authorities to crack down on the illegal places even they have the people behind them”. The law enforcement on cracking down in the illegal disc will support the national government policy,” he noted. He also urged all movie productions to implement to recommendation from culture ministry that “when they sold their discs, they have to stick visa stamps for all their products properly,” He also asked to all disc vendors to sell with legal discs only with sticking visa stamps from the ministry of culture and fine arts. “These ways will help to promote the law enforcement in the country to make business lawfully”. They will have competition with equity in their trade,” he noted.
Moreover, Sok Phal, deputy commander of Cambodian National Police Authority also said that the disc brought to have serious crimes such as gang rape on the minor girls that it affected to morality in society and we also need to join in hands to eliminate the serious crimes. He highlighted that now we have cases that the father raped his own daughters and minor boy raped girl minors. All these things we need to deal and one main part from the pornography disc influenced on those boys and youth in the society, he noted. We have to fine the offenders according to law because they pirated the CDs and DVDs,” he said. According to law, vendors found selling pirated films fined nearly 2 dollars for one disc and who run the café with screening the porn disc faced with 5,000 US dollars fine and sent to court. The offenders used to have committed the violation on the intellectual property rights and affected the film industries in the country through copying those discs unlawfully with large scale and resold them at markets,” he told reporters. Foreign media reported that pirated disc have occurred not only Cambodia and regional countries including Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and China. And all these countries destroyed millions of counterfeit discs in each year. Millions of illegal and pirated discs destroyed in each year after the government cracked down on offenders and the law enforcement of property rights still limited in the region but they are making effort to implement the law on these things strictly, the media reported. “The main matter is from the poor people, the poor could access materials with cheap price and therefore they need to buy cheap price of disc to watch or listen those discs even those products are not good quality enough. “I need to buy cheap price of disc like counterfeit one to watch and listen them even they do not have good quality but the original disc is so expensive, a original one is worth about two or three dollars per disc,” said Vo Chanda, a local resident in Steung Mean Chey in Phnom Penh said. And the copied one is worth about 0.5 dollars or 0.7 dollar only,” she added.
“I could earn from one to three dollars a day from selling counterfeit disc,” said Si Kara, a disc seller. He sold the disc at night time along Kampuchea Krom Boulevard in Phnom Penh, where night people usually went to eat their food at open restaurants on this street. I want to sell original discs but the clients always asked for cheap price and so only counterfeit disc I could sell,” he said.
Who sold the counterfeit discs, we need to confiscate those discs and especially the offenders used the large machines for copying discs illegally. They face with law,” Khim Sarith said. “We all need to follow law because we all need rule of law for our country,” Khim added.