BSA Warns of “Ghost Piracy” as Raids Uncover Unlicensed Software in Malaysia and Thailand

The shift to remote work during the pandemic has done nothing to slow the use of unlicensed software in Malaysia and the wider region, according to BSA | The Software Alliance. The industry group says companies are using technology that lets staff working from home connect remotely to unlicensed software installed on office machines. BSA calls this practice "ghost piracy" and says it is occurring among design, creative, animation and engineering professionals in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, among other countries.

Raids in Malaysia and Thailand

Earlier in June the Enforcement Division of Malaysia's Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (MDTCA) carried out its ninth raid aimed at ghost piracy. Targets included an interior design firm and a design-and-build company in Kedah, along with companies in manufacturing, precision engineering and construction. Officers found unlicensed software worth about RM657,975 (US$150,000) installed on the premises, V-Ray, a 3D rendering package for computer graphics, among it. Most of the computers used by interns placed with these businesses were also running unlicensed software.

Shortly after the Malaysian operation, Thailand's Economic and Cyber Crime police reported a raid on an animation studio in Bangkok that was producing entertainment content for a global streaming platform. The action followed a tip-off from an employee who had reported the company to BSA.

While executing a search warrant for breaches of software copyright law, officers saw employees at home using remote access and remote control software to reach cracked copies of unlicensed programs. Of the 20 computers in the studio's office, 15 held unlicensed Autodesk Maya software used for special effects in film and animation. The unlicensed software was worth close to US$200,000 in total.

Tarun Sawney, senior director at BSA, said the group believes companies have found ways to reach illegal software even while staff work remotely, to the detriment of cyber security and the rule of law.

Penalties under Malaysian law

Malaysia's Copyright Act 1987 requires that only licensed, legal software be used in business. A company that breaks the law, together with its management, can be fined between RM2,000 and RM20,000 for every illegal copy, and business leaders can also face up to five years in prison.

BSA has run awareness and enforcement programmes with MDTCA for years to encourage the use of legal software, particularly since Malaysia's rate of unlicensed software stands at 51%. Its enforcement work on software intellectual property slowed in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic. With ghost piracy now in the headlines, the group is stepping up its work with regional governments, arranging discussions on possible ghost piracy cases as well as broader compliance with software intellectual property law and cybercrime.

A risk for public infrastructure

Sawney said BSA is working actively with governments across the region to raise software compliance. He described unlicensed software as neither secure nor stable and said businesses should not use it. In his view no creator can produce quality design with illegal software, and when those designs are for roads, bridges, railways and other infrastructure, the companies involved are taking a serious risk.

Because engineering and construction firms are among those most often found breaking the law, Sawney said the issue should concern the government agencies that hire them for infrastructure and national development projects. Governments in Southeast Asia want the companies that build national infrastructure to use the safest, most productive and most secure software, he said, and unlicensed software is a major risk. "There should be no tolerance for firms using any illegal software in national development," he said, adding that these are substantial businesses winning lucrative contracts and that shortcuts with cracked software should never be accepted.