The Star

KLANG: All he wanted to do was deliver a bouquet of flowers to his friend but ended up getting 10 stitches on his scrotum after a dog bit him.

Goh Boon Lea, a contractor and part time florist, had gone to his friend’s house in Taman Bekerly here at 10.20pm on Sunday to deliver the flowers when the male mongrel, belonging to his friend’s tenant, a 60-year-old woman, lunged and started to bark at him.

The 37-year-old said his friend tried to hold the dog back but it escaped and bit him.

“I pushed the dog away. Then, I noticed blood oozing from the wound. The pain was so bad. My sister, who was waiting in the car, rushed to help me into the car,” he said.

His sister drove him to the nearest clinic where he was given several injections and stitches.

“It was the scariest and most painful experience of my life. Luckily my two sons, aged three and six, were in the car with my sister,” he told a press conference organised by Kapar MCA division youth chief Datuk Song Kee Chai here Tuesday.

Goh said there were two holes on his jeans after the dog’s teeth tore into them.

He then lodged a police report, adding that the dog had bitten his friend’s sister previously.

Goh, who said he was still traumatised, plans to take legal action against the dog owner. He is on two weeks’ medical leave.

Song, who is also Klang Municipal Councillor, said he had forwarded a complaint to the council.

He said all dog owners ought to know how to take care of their dogs and keep them from being a danger to other people.

The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: If you download material illegally from the Internet, be prepared to fork out a minimum fine of RM250,000.

This is the warning from the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry to Malaysians who continue to illegally download songs, videos and the like.

Although this penalty was legislated more than 10 years ago under the Copyright Act 1987, it has yet to be fully enforced.

This was because the Government was still focusing on “physical enforcement”, encompassing continuous efforts to weed out pirated DVDs, VCDs and CDs sold on the streets and their operators.

Deputy Minister Datuk S. Veerasingam said that while this remains their main priority, cracking down on Internet download offenders was also gaining momentum.

“For the past three years, we have seen a significant reduction in copyright pirates.

“This is due to the continuous efforts of four enforcement officers. “We will also very soon make Internet download offenders our priority. The law has been there for the past 10 years,” he said Tuesday.

Veerasingam was speaking to reporters after opening the WIPO Asia-Pacific Regional Seminar on the Issues and Recent Developments of the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty on behalf of Minister Datuk Shafie Apdal.

More than 75 participants from 11 countries are taking part in the three-day seminar.

Veerasingam added that the maximum fine for downloading material illegally from the Internet was as high as a whopping RM500,000.

The reality of it, Veerasingam said, was that as long as there were buyers, there would always be sellers.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s buying a CD from the street or illegally downloading songs from the Internet. It’s still the same,” he said.

He thus urged Malaysians to be responsible consumers and realise the damage they caused to the various industries that painstakingly produced music, videos and movies only to find their work being used for free.

On the other hand, he also urged that products be reasonably priced so consumers would not consider cheaper alternatives, such as pirated or illegally downloaded products.

On advancements made by the country in this area, Veerasingam said various amendments to the law and the instalment of an Intellectual Property Court recently was testament to this.