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Malaysia s Intellectual Property High Court has ruled that the sale and distribution of streaming devices configured for piracy purposes constitutes infringement under the Copyright Act. The decision comes a year after Malaysia informed the United States Patent and Trademark Office that pirate set-top devices were a serious problem in the country.
Hoping to reduced the online availability of pirated content in the country, in 2019 the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry said they had blocked 246 sites.
The aim of the blocking was to reduce the usefulness of set-top boxes that are configured to provide access to copyrighted material. Running parallel, Malaysia deployed a secondary tactic to prevent the spread of Android-based devices by demanding that importers and distributors submit samples to ensure they meet quality assurance standards.