Internet: Malaysian plaintiff seeks declaration as to where internet publishers do business

The most interesting facet of the claim is that the plaintiff argues that Malaysian courts have jurisdiction over Google because its search engine is used by persons in Malaysia.

This argument is similar to that which says that an article is published where the reader reads it, not at the publisher's servers.

If the case is successful, it will negate the protections offered to US companies under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which say, inter alia, that republishing material found on the internet is outside the USA's laws of libel.

The case is issued at the same time as the Malaysian government has announced that it proposes to bring on-line media within the same regime of licensing as that relating to newspapers and magazines, controlled under the Printing Presses and Publications Act.

There is widespread condemnation of the proposal from across the political spectrum and industry groups.

But quite how the Home Ministry plans to define the scope is unclear: Home Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Mahmood Adam said in a statement yesterday that the definition of "publication" was under review to decide whether it should include internet content, blogs and, even social media postings such as Facebook.

The hook for the proposals was after making presentations to the Film Censorship Board and Film Appeal Board: he said his concern related to "multimedia contents."

Hinting at why Malaysia's broadband is so slow, Mahmood admitted that the Monistry monitors internet content "daily" including streamed video from, amongst other sites, YouTube.Com.

“Modification of guidelines is to ensure we can control the entry of films using the latest technology, such as pen-drives and computers.”

That, practically, is a battle that is already lost unless all persons are fully searched and all media including hard drives on computers are checked at customs entry points, an impossible task.