KUALA LUMPUR: The Taiping High Court on Tuesday ordered a man to pay RM100,000 to Skop Productions Sdn Bhd for uploading the company’s blockbuster hit, Munafik 2, onto social media.
The hearing for the writ of summons and statement of claim filed on Oct 8 by Datuk Yusof Haslam, Skop Productions managing director and Syamsul Yusof, who is the director of the film, saw the defendant, Muhammad Izwan Shah Kamal Shah, ordered by Judicial Commissioner Asmadi Hussin to pay the damages to the plaintiff.
The defendant was also ordered not to breach the copyright belonging to the plaintiff, Skop Productions, and not to upload the film or any parts of the film in any shape or form to social media without the company’s permission.
If the defendant breaches any of the orders, he could be served with jail time, a fine, or both for contempt of court.
In its complaint to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry and police, Skop Productions had claimed that Muhammad Izwan had breached the movie’s copyright terms by uploading the movie onto his Facebook and Instagram accounts.
The plaintiffs had also filed a civil suit as well as applied for an injunction against the defendant.
The plaintiffs claimed that the movie was subsequently shared by several social media sites for public viewing. This, said the plaintiffs, was an offence under Section 4(1) of the Copyright Act 1987 for possessing copyrighted material which were made or republished without the authority, agreement or consent of the copyright owner.
The offence carries a maximum punishment of a fine of no more than RM200,000 for each copy, or a jail term of no more than five years, or both.
Yusof and Shamsul, as well as Skop Production staff, were present at the court.
Munafik 2, which also stars Maya Karin and Nasir Bilal Khan, was shown in cinemas on August 30.
It raked in a box office collection of RM43 million after being screened in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei.