Beware - Malaysia to have law that violates privacy - that allow others to monitor our internet activity

Beware the Malaysian government is going to enact a law that will be affront to one's right of privacy - they will be monitoring all internet activity, and this obligation is going to be placed on Internet Service Providers(ISP) - and they will most probably be monitoring all our activities on the internet, and this is certainly very wrong.

They want to put an end to 'illegal' downloading of music, etc from the net -  but really what do you mean by 'illegal' downloading - Do we now have to find out whether things available on the internet are legal or illegal to download? This is absurd - Music companies can always monitor the net and 'kill' sites that are allowing for 'illegal' downloading if they want to but surely they should never be given the legal right to be able to monitor people's activity on the net - which will be an invasion of privacy.

As far as I can see, music companies, etc are all making money - and thus I do not understand why the government is spending a lot of people's monies and resources protecting these companies.... When it come to monitoring compliance of labour laws and/or Occupational Safety and Health regulations, we find that the government rarely is interested. 

As it is, most likely government and other 'security' based organizations are already monitoring our computers, internet activity, phones, etc - and this is a violation of privacy. To now have Acts empowering others to violate our rights of privacy is certainly wrong. Hope those Opposition MPs and BN back-benchers would oppose these kind of laws - that look 'reasonable' but is really very invasive. So, what  - will our internet accounts be terminated for downloading stuff from the internet - which some say are 'illegal' - 

Some music and films, and computer programs are available on the internet to be downloaded - so how really will we know which is which. It is not our duty to try and identify which can be downloaded or bought - consumers should never be prosecuted. Those selling should be penalized - and that too should really by a civil action by the rights holder (or the relevant music/song company) and governments should be wasting their resources protecting business and profits of some companies.

KUALA LUMPUR: The free-and-easy days of illegal downloading of music and movies may soon be over. A proposed new law will enable Internet Service Providers (ISP) to suspend or terminate the Internet accounts of P2P (peer-to-peer) users.

This new law called the ISP Liability act, will be tabled in Parliament next month, according to Recording Industry Association of Malaysia (RIM) chairman Norman Halim.

RIM has been lobbying the Government for an ISP Liability act for the past 5 years as illegal online downloads have been cannibalising the legitimate sales of music, worldwide.

“The act makes the ISPs responsible for curbing online piracy. The ISPs will be fined if they don’t take action against illegal downloaders. The ISPs have the technology to track P2P users,” said Norman.

However, he said that the fine amount had yet to be determined.

ISPs will send two warning letters to illegal downloaders. Should the downloaders still persist, the Internet access will be suspended or even terminated.

“Other countries that have such an act have seen their respective music industries recover. One good example would be South Korea,” he said. - Star, 26/12/2010, New law to end illegal downloading of music and movies