Stop the onscreen stealing

The unhealthy trend of streaming local movies online is an ongoing menace, write and

cinemas,” said the irate director when contacted.

He added: “This year, was uploaded on Facebook simultaneously with its release in cinemas.”

Veteran actor, director and producer Datuk Yusof Haslam said that live streaming has been a real menace to all film companies and if left to fester, smaller outfits will eventually close shop.

“The worst case I’ve come across so far involved Global Station, which has lost more than RM2 million in ticket sales for said Yusof of the film that premiered last July.

He added that his own production company Skop, which was responsible for the recent mega hit had also suffered losses. Datuk Norman Abdul Halim SIMPLY CRIMINAL

Datuk Ahmad Izham Omar, meanwhile, tweeted: “Streaming from the cinema is illegal. It hurts everyone.”

In his column in NST, the chief executive officer of Primeworks Studio also said it was a crime.

He wrote: And now, the latest fad, livestreaming from the cinema. This is not just wrong, it’s criminal. You are stealing. Stop it. You are killing an industry.”

His opinion was echoed by Datuk Norman Abdul Halim, producer and Film Producers’ Association of Malaysia (PFM) president, who stressed that FB livestreaming from cinemas was “a crime, plain and simple.”

He added that “many filmgoers do not realise it is a criminal offence, no better than video piracy.”

It was reported that the producers of

had filed a police report months ago on the illegal transmission and copying of which starred Aaron Aziz, Izara Aisyah and Soo Wincci.

Apparently two cinemagoers had recorded the movie and posted it on their FB accounts which garnered more than 200,000 views at the time.

The damage done to the local film industry is no laughing matter.

WHAT CAN BE DONE

Norman said that it was time to have prefilm warnings against live streaming, along the lines of the previous anti-video piracy campaigns.

He added: “We must highlight the Copyright Act 1987’s anti-camcording section, 43A, which says it is an offence to operate an audio visual recording device in a screening room to record films.”

Other industry personalities suggested