Anti-tower protest kicks-off

PETALING JAYA: Protests against the proposed 100-storey Warisan Merdeka tower has gone online with the "Mega Demonstration on Facebook – 'Say No to Mega Tower' which kicked off yesterday with.
More than 2,000 "online protestors" have confirmed their participation in the cyber-rally, set to go on until Sunday.

But, while the campaign sought to get the 2,228 supporters to change their Facebook profile images on personal sites as well, only a handful have done so.

University student Ram Kumar from Kedah objected to the tower because he felt the government had to get their "priorities right as there is an urgent need to lower the cost of medical, education and housing for the low-income earners”.

Broadcast engineer Fazli Abas, 27, said: “I don’t understand why it’s necessary to build a 100-storey mega tower as there are many buildings in the city’s Golden Triangle, especially the Petronas Twin Towers, (that have) yet to be fully occupied.”

Another university student, Victor Tan, wondered if the profit generated from the project would be able to reach up to three or five times the amount of the RM5 billion investment.

The Facebook campaign “1M Malaysians Reject 100-storey Mega Tower” was created a day after the Budget 2011 announcement and has registered 156,853 approvals at Press time.

READ: Taking on the 100-storey tower

READ: Najib defends 100-storey Warisan Merdeka tower plan

Customer service woes

Improving trend still falls below expectations

PETALING JAYA: There is a general view that customer service in Malaysia falls short of expectations but if we look into the operational metrics of individual industries, service levels have been improving, said Customer Relationship Management and Contact Centre Association Malaysia (CCAM) vice-president Chew Su Fong.

She was responding to the findings of Greater Expectations: Keeping Pace with Customer Service Demands in Asia Pacific, a recent report from the Economist Intelligence Unit, which revealed Asian companies were not emphasising service.

Chew told Mail Money that the definition of good customer service was subjective and what was good yesterday was deemed ‘given’ today despite intense competition in the service industry.

“Consumers are more informed. They know their rights better and this gives the perception that here, good customer service is falling short. This is why the findings from studies which span various service industries may be relevant.

“However, judging from the results of our recently concluded 11th CCAM Annual Contact Centre Awards 2010, the variation between rankings of contestants were sometimes close and the scoring, very high for many categories.”

Chew cited examples where drivers can renew their road-tax online and the customer experience improved. In telecommunications and banking, there was pro-active servicing such as call-back and follow-ups until completion of service resolutions.

Chew, who is also Celcom Axiata Bhd senior vice-president of customer service, said common problems affecting customer service performance were networks and tools performances, particularly in the telco industry.

Other factors were fulfillment objectives, follow-ups and product knowledge of front-liners servicing consumers.

"Third parties of distribution channels such as dealers and resellers representing organisations, also contributed to customer service performance because of the conflicting objectives of closing sales and providing good service. In such cases, sales usually prevailed and consumers might complain later of not knowing the full rates of a telecommunications package plan until they received their first bill, for example.”

When asked if customer service should measure up to the price that one is paying, Chew said: “It is fair for service to measure up to the price one is paying. However, servicing options must be provided.

Pos Malaysia: Lodge complaints over late payment notices

GEORGE TOWN: Those who made utility bill payments at post offices but still received late payment notices should lodge a complaint with Pos Malaysia Bhd.

Pos Malaysia’s head of corporate communications and customer care Datuk Rohaiza Hashim said customers should bring their original bills or receipts to any regular post office to check on the matter.

She said this in light of a recent case involving the Batu Ferringhi mini post office which was outsourced to an approved third party operator by Pos Malaysia.

About 50 people stormed the post office on Wednesday to seek an explanation on why utility bill payments they made there were deemed unsettled.

Three female clerks had since been arrested.

“The case is under investigation and the operator and his staff have been suspended from handling Pos Malaysia services,” Rohaiza said.

She said Pos Malaysia had taken full control of the operations at the outlet with two of its own staff members.
She described the incident as “isolated’ and thanked the public for alerting Pos Malaysia.

Rohaiza said there were currently about 500 outsourced post offices in the country and over 700 regular post offices.

“Outsourcing is done in areas where there is no regular post office within a 5km radius, so that people can still have easy access to basic postal service,’’ she added.

“Applications are open to Malaysians who have their own premises such as mini markets,” she said.

In Petaling Jaya, Fomca secretary-general Muhd Sha’ani Abdullah said services for all one-stop payment counters should be improved and monitored closely to avoid fraudulent activities.

“The enforcement and rules are already there,” he said.

Keen on clarification from MCMC

PETALING JAYA: Several MPs told The Malay Mail yesterday they were also in the dark about whether the Universal Service Provision (USP) fund has been spent wisely.

Kinabatangan MP Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin cited the example of how only about a third of residents in his constituency in Sabah had electricity supply in their homes as well as only one telco tower and two rural Internet outposts.

"Giving free netbooks to residents there before the necessary infrastructure is complete would be useless.
"Three hybrid solar power plants are being built by the Energy Commission and only then can the MCMC build more Internet facilities."

Public Accounts Committee deputy chairman Dr Tan Tang Giaw, said MCMC must make use of the USP fund wisely and effectively to achieve the aim of providing Internet services in rural areas where telcos were not interested in investing as it was not profitable for them.

"We don't know how they are spending the fund. If it is true, the fund now has RM4.7 billion, that is a huge amount. I will bring this matter up in Parliament."

Gombak MP Azmin Ali was also keen on getting clarifications from the ministry on the state of the fund.
"I don't want to comment further as only the ministry will know how the fund has been used so far."

Meanwhile, Selangor State Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo, said the USP fund had been used wisely by the MCMC in his constituency of Sungai Panjang.

"Last month, MCMC gave 500 netbooks with broadband access to villagers."

He said he was satisfied with the effort, adding: "I don't know what it is like at other places. So far, I heard Internet facilities at Sungai Besar, Sabak Bernam and Tanjung Karang have been completed by the MCMC.

Villagers there are happy."

Watch what you say online

 

Dr BAHMA SIVASUBRAMANIAM

It is a myth that cyberspace is a lawless wilderness. Conventional laws can and do apply to cyberspace activities.

CYBERSPACE is a beehive of activity: communications take place, transactions are completed and even wars are conducted!

It is therefore a myth that cyberspace is a lawless wilderness. Cyber users harbour a delusion that cyberspace accords them anonymity and therefore out of reach from the arms of the law.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Illegal and unlawful activities can be detected and perpetrators can be identified and prosecuted or sued, as the case may be.

Conventional laws can and do apply to cyberspace activities. Where there are no adequate conventional laws that apply to such activities, special laws have been promulgated. In Malaysia, these include the Computer Crimes Act 1997 and the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998. The latest in this series of legislation is the Personal Data Protection Act 2010.

While there is no denying that a netizen cannot escape liability from legal action should there be any breach of law, it must be noted that the same “lifesavers” and defences are available to him as if he had committed the wrongs the conventional manner.

For example, in a conventional defamation action, the maker of the defamatory remarks would usually be asked to apologise before formal legal action is commenced against him.

I do not see why the same should not be applicable to the cyber wrongdoer. Also, defences such as truth/justification and fair comment would be equally as available to him.

This brings me to the next point. The Internet Service Providers (“ISP”) have an important role to play in cyberspace for obvious reasons. It is after all the conduit, the means of access to the Internet.

However, due to the nature of its work and functions, it is sometimes unfair and indeed unrealistic to make the ISPs liable for wrongdoings in cyberspace.

In the United States, liability of an ISP will depend on its role and its functions, especially in defamation suits – whether it is an information carrier or information controller.

Where the ISP’s role is the former, the court does not accord any liability for the ISP is perceived as a postman, merely carrying information from one point to another.

The ISP would be, however, liable if it is an information controller as it exercises a degree of control over the posts made by subscribers of its accounts.

In Malaysia, there is no such distinction. An ISP is deemed to be responsible and/or liable for a commission of any wrongdoing in cyberspace. S. 211 and S. 233 of the Communica­tions and Multimedia Act 1998 (CMA) make an author and its intermediary who knowingly enable the transmission of offensive, false, menacing material to be convicted of an offence under the Act.

Both sections carry penal sanctions.

Safe harbour

An interesting aspect to the position of the ISPs vis-à-vis the law is the unique shield called the “safe harbour” defence. The defence is statutorily provided for in the US under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998 and other pieces of legislation. It simply gives the ISP and even a website owner an opportunity to rectify the wrongdoing complained of.

The defence is not available where the ISP had actual knowledge and/or awareness of the wrongdoing or it did not remove the offending material expeditiously once it had received knowledge or became aware of the wrongdoing.

Also, the ISP cannot rely on the safe harbour provision if it had the right to control the wrongdoing activity or if the ISP stood to gain a financial benefit from the wrongdoing. In other words, the ISP (or anyone who relies on that defence) must have acted in good faith.

The “safe harbour” defence is not a blanket defence. There are cases where parties’ attempt to rely on it have failed – the infamous Napster case being one of them.

Napster provided peer-to-peer networking facilities which allowed file-sharing. The software enabled music to be uploaded and downloaded freely and free of charge and, most importantly, without the consent of the copyright owner.

The courts held that even if Napster fulfilled the requirements of an ISP (which it did not as it was merely a facilitator of sharing of music files), it still could not rely on the safe harbour defence as it did not take appropriate action against infringers by terminating them.

It would be interesting to see a similar Napster-type case in Malaysia.

There are no specific statutory provisions that actually set out the safe harbour defence here but the CMA and the statutory instruments created under it do provide a similar defence to an ISP who unknowingly transmitted prohibited content.

This defence is called the “notice and take down” measure and is provided under the Content Code, which is an instrument created under S. 213 of the CMA.

A few words about the Content Code (the Code). The Content Code Forum, a statutory body created under S. 212 of the CMA, is empowered under S. 213 to create a code which will include model procedures for dealing with offensive or indecent content.

The Code covers a myriad of issues relating to the service of disseminating of content by the service providers in the communications and multimedia industry.

What is interesting about the Code and which is missing from the CMA is that the Code acknowledges the potential problems an ISP may face, especially where the commission of an online offence could take place without its knowledge.

Article 4 of Part 5 of the Code provides: It is recognised that it is impractical, difficult and ineffective to monitor or control a user’s access to Content available Online.

Article 2 of the same Part states anyone who provides access to any Content but have neither control over the composition of such Content nor any knowledge of such Content is deemed an innocent carrier for the purposes of this Code.

It acknowledges also that an innocent carrier cannot be held responsible for the content provided or transmitted. This is akin to the role of the ISP as information carrier in the US.

Articles 2 and 4, read together, provide the base for the “notice and take down” mechanism mentioned above.

The upshot of the Code is simply this. The ISP will be notified of the offending material by the Complaints Bureau of the Content Forum (the notice).

The ISP then has two (2) working days from the date of notification to inform the subscriber of the offending content and request him to remove the content (take down).

If the subscriber refuses to do so, the ISP has the right to suspend his account: Article 7. If the ISP takes all these steps, then it can rely on this as a defence in any prosecution, action or proceeding of any nature, whether in court or otherwise since it had complied with the Code.

This is not only set out in Article 6.3 of the Code but also is a statutory defence provided under S. 98 of the CMA.

I would venture to suggest that this defence should be equally available to anyone who has or had inadvertently posted indecent, false, menacing or offensive in character content even though the Act and the Code provide this defence to the ISP and others of its ilk only.

However, this defence should not be seen as a carte blanche for would-be abusers of the Internet, for the law will not allow perpetrators of online abuses to easily escape liability, as demonstrated by many cases involving social networking websites such as Friends Reunited and Facebook.

The earliest reported case arising from an online wrong was a defamation suit filed in England. Reputed to be the first of its kind, this action arose out of a post made in the Friends Reunited website.

A retired teacher, Jim Murray, brought an action in libel against a former student called Jonathan Spence. (He had initially considered suing the Service Provider but decided against it.

Friends Reunited had promptly removed the offending material).

Spence posted remarks alleging that his former teacher Murray was dismissed from school for “making rude remarks about a girl” and strangling a pupil.

Murray disputed these claims and pointed out that he had retired and was not dismissed. The Lincoln County Court agreed with Murray and ordered Spence to pay damages. That was in 2002.

As recently as July 29, 2010, the High Court in England awarded £10,000 damages to Raymond Bryce, a law student who brought an action against a friend (now-ex) for defamatory remarks posted on his page in Facebook.

Jeremiah Barber implied that Bryce was a paedophile and posted indecent photographs of children, superimposed with Bryce’s photograph.

The Court was mindful of the fact that defamatory remarks published in an online medium could reach a wider circle of audience, unlike the traditional medium such as newspapers.

Interesting tests

In Malaysia, aside from the defamation suits that arose from blogging (the Jeff Ooi and Rocky Bru cases being two examples), two prosecutions of online postings provide interesting tests of the law. Both prosecutions are under the CMA. In the first case, Mohammad Tarysif Tajudin was charged in the Sessions Court in January this year under S. 233 of the CMA for making a post on Facebook.

S. 233 caters for improper use of network facilities or network services and states that any person who knowingly makes, creates or solicits AND initiates the transmission of any comment, request, communication, etc, which is indecent, false, menacing with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass commits an offence. Mohammad Tarysif, allegedly under a pseudonym, is accused of posting offensive comments in his Facebook page, offering his “services” to throw petrol bombs at churches for a negotiable price.
 
The trial is yet to begin.

The second case of prosecution under the CMA is the case of Irwan Abdul Rahman, also known as Hassan Skoedeng. He was charged in the Sessions Court on Sept 2, 2010, over an allegedly tongue-in-cheek post called “TNB to sue WWF over Earth Hour”.

The charge was also under S. 233. This case is not straightforward.

Is the “offending” article satirical or tongue-in-cheek? If it was, it is not an offence.

However, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), who is tasked with the prosecution of Irwan, must prove that the accused’s post was “obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive in character” and that he had the INTENTION “to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person at any number or electronic address”.

The proceedings are of interest not just to lawyers but also to anyone who writes in cyberspace.

What is “annoying”? Should “annoying” under the CMA have a more complex interpretation and a higher degree of proof than “annoying” as a common parlance? Who decides what is abusive or threatening or harassing? What is the standard of proof?

Interesting questions that demand firm and irrefutable answers.

The overall conclusion is simply this: your actions in cyberspace will not go unnoticed, particularly if those actions are illegal or unlawful. Article 3.5 of Part 5 of the Content Code states very aptly: The online environment is not a legal vacuum. In general, if something is illegal “offline”, it will also be illegal “online”.

In this matter, the relevant existing laws apply.

Those of us who are avid users of the Internet should be mindful of this provision.

> Dr Bahma Sivasubramaniam is head of Law Unit, Faculty of Management, Multimedia University. He is also advocate and solicitor, High Court of Malaya.

Personal data protection commission to function from next January

KUALA LUMPUR: A commission under the Personal Data Protection Act 2009 will be created by January next year, said Information, Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.

He said the secretary-general of the ministry, Datuk Wira Kamaruddin Siaraf, was now discussing with the Public Service Department (PSD) on the manpower needs, emoluments and other service requirements for the commission.

"The commission has already been created in terms of legislation, it's just that we need to cooperate with the PSD and accept the location of the building, which we are working on now.

"I think it's not later than January next year, but probably by the end of the year, we can resolve the size of the manpower required. We are also planning the logistics for the new department," he told reporters after presenting the 2009 Excellent Service Awards to ministry staff, here Tuesday.

Rais said that with the existence of the commission, the number of agencies and departments under the ministry had increased to 19.

He said the commission was closely linked to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) as it applied computer forensic knowledge.

"In addition, the commissioner is not just anybody. He has to be trained in interrogations, cross-examinations in court proceedings and others," he said.

Rais said the position of other companies, including Credit Tip Off Services Sdn Bhd (CTOS) which had been using one's personal data all this while, was now placed under the new Act.

The Act, passed by Parliament in April, among others aimed at regulating the processing of the personal data of an individual, who is involved in commercial transactions, by the data user to provide protection to the individual's personal data and thereby protecting the interest of the individual concerned.

According to the act, any personal data user who breaches the provision under Section 5(1) has committed an offence and faces a maximum jail term of two years, a RM200,000 fine or both. - Bernama

still key in online service

Consumers are making security a priority when going online, and online service providers should take heed.

Curry points out that more than half of the survey respondents say they are less likely to share information and interact on Web sites that do not address their security concerns.

According to a global online consumer survey by RSA, the security division of EMC Corp, consumers believe that their identities should be better protected than a simple username and password on social networking (59 per cent), healthcare (64 per cent), government (70 per cent) and online banking (80 per cent) Web sites.

And nine in 10 consumers are willing to use a stronger form of security if offered.

What this means for online service providers is that they must step up their security measures so consumers are comfortable doing their transactions on their sites, said RSA’s marketing chief technical officer Sam Curry.

“Online banking continues to provide significant levels of convenience for consumers, with quick access to checking and savings accounts, and the ability to pay bills automatically, transfer funds and perform other transactions.

“There is dramatic adoption of the use of social networks in which people use to form and nurture personal and professional relationships.

And healthcare organisations as well as local, state and federal government agencies are bringing the convenience of online services to the consumer, offering access to personal healthcare records, driver’s licence renewal and payment of tax bills.

“However, more than half of all survey respondents say they are less likely to share information and interact on these Web sites if their concerns on security are not addressed.”

According to Curry, consumers today look for security questions, related security logos and verification before transacting online.

“If an organisation’s site doesn’t have these features, they (consumers) will go elsewhere.”

Organisations must understand the cyber security threat landscape, monitor the environment and get efficient tools to secure their services, Curry pointed out.

“We have to think of cyber criminals as financially motivated. Within their ecosystem, the cost to break into an online service system is low.

 To have minimum security against such a scenario, organisations need to raise the cost, and this requires greater and smarter investment in security.”

RSA’s survey was conducted last October across North America, South America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific (including Malaysia). Respondents totalled 4,539 consumers aged 18 to 65.

Digital TV broadcasts for mobiles to be beam in soon

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians will be able to watch digital TV broadcasts on their mobile phones by the end of the year, said wireless communications company Asiaspace Digital Network Sdn Bhd.

“Our product is called amaxAV and allows us to broadcast digital content such as sports, news, radio and cartoons directly onto your mobile device if it has the required receiver,” said Asiaspace Digital Network chairman Datuk Abdul Ghani Abdullah.

“This is already being done in South Korea with great success and we hope to replicate that here.”

To that end, Airspace has signed a mutual co-operation agreement with South Korean broadcast support company Korean Radio Promotion Association to provide assistance in the implementation of amaxAV.

The company said it has already installed digital transmitters on existing telecommunication towers, which allow it to broadcast to mobile devices with the amaxAV receiver within a certain range.

Additionally Asiaspace said it has signed deals with CNBC and local radio conglomerate AMP to provide content. The company hopes to have 300 transmitters installed by the time amaxAV is due to be rolled out.

“We are also in talks with ESPN to broadcast sports highlights in high definition (HD),” said the company’s vice-president of content development and broadcasting Ahmad Shah.

He said that the Asiaspace could broadcast full-length football matches live on mobile devices.

However this would be contingent on demand and whether those who own the copyright agree to such a move.

Asiaspace insists it is not trying to compete with or replace local satellite TV provider Astro.

“The service we are offering is for mobile devices only and therefore it complements rather than competes with satellite TV, which is generally watched at home or on a public TV,” said Abdul Ghani.

AmaxAV is due to be launched by the end of the year at a base rate of RM30 per month depending on the package. The company declined to give dates or elaborate on the packages.

Facebook status appears glitchy Saturday

NEW YORK (AP) -- Facebook users have been complaining about problems at the social media site.

Users in the U.S. and other countries reported problems beginning Saturday morning. Some could not log in, and the site was unusually slow and glitchy for others.

Users in London, Bangkok and Mexico City reported problems. Many used Twitter to complain.

Facebook spokesman Matt Hicks it was a "small percentage of users" who had problems accessing Facebook, their friends' profiles or specific site features because of an isolated server problem.

At 6 p.m. Saturday, Facebook said it had restored access to the users who were having access problems.

Facebook, which has more than 400 million users, has generally avoided such hiccups. 

Twitter has had bigger problems. Last August, hackers shut down the short messaging service for several hours. Facebook also experienced problems, but it was never shut down completely.

Telenor in M2M service talks with Malaysian carmakers

BARCELONA: Telenor Connexion AB, a wholly-owned unit of Telenor ASA, is in talks with Malaysian carmakers, including Proton Holdings Bhd (5304), to offer its machine-to-machine (M2M) service.

"We have engaged talks with Proton, we are still in early stage of negotiations," said Telenor Connexion global business development executive (automotive) Per Lindberg in Barcelona on Wednesday.

M2M means data communication between machines.
For example, if a car is involved in an accident, the car will be able to "tell" the help centre of its location and the number of passengers in the car.

This would help the centre to figure out how many ambulances to request for.
This will be made possible because the car will be equipped with a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card, which is installed during the manufacturing process.

"Thousands of lives can be saved as a result of this," said Lindberg.

The company is also in talks with Indian carmakers.

Telenor Connexion was established as a company in 2008. Before that, it was a division within the Telenor group.

With more than 10 years of experience in M2M, it currently offers solutions to various companies, including carmakers Volvo, Scania, as well as one of the top carmakers in the world.

Besides automobiles, the solution is also applicable for home security systems, medical equipment (such as devices to check cholesterol level), and home appliances.