The local authorities in Malaysia, in particular the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs recently launched an anti-piracy campaign known as Ops Tulen targeted mainly at computer software. This campaign is aimed not only at protecting the copyright of software but also trade marks. They are working closely with trade mark owners and are clamping down hard on infringers by way of spot checks and frequent raids on people using brand names belonging to others in the hope of gaining false reputation when distributing their software.

In a recent successful raid by the enforcement division of the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs of several retail outlets in Subang Jaya, Selangor carrying false Red Hat Linux V3.0 open source operating systems, officers seized more than 4,400 CDs is a case in point. Recently it appears that big IT companies such as Red Hat are actively protecting their IP rights whereas many other genuine open source software developers who have valuable trade marks are not as active as they should be in protecting their marks.

This enforcement is to stop developers from riding on the good reputation of other renowned developers rather than develop their own brand names. The local authorities and the courts are taking this kind of behaviour very seriously and are levying harsher sentences for such crimes.

It is hoped that software owners and developers in the open source arena become more aware of their rights and are vigilant in their enforcement efforts.