Wrote this to the "Letters" page of The Star

In reference to your report about "Efforts to lower prices of original VCDs, DVDs" 19th Jun article.

I laud the move by the local licensee to bring down further the pricing for original VCDs and DVDs. Being savvy businessman this conglomerate licensee should be able to feel the pulse of the consumer market and respond accordingly.

However, I cant say the same of our governtment. Beside cracking down on Pirated VCDs and Softwares what other measures have they taken to encourage the consumers to use licensed softwares and VCDs/DVDs?

I will gladly buy VCDs/DVDs at the price of between RM9.90 - RM40 because the quality will be assured but I will not want to spend the same amount of ringgit if the original movie was censored so much so that I cant even make head nor tail of what is the original storyline.

Can the relevant authority who is overseeing the censor board wake up and feel the pulse of the "matured" rakyat? Censoring away certain scenes (like kissing, or when a pendekar is about to pierce someone ) wont make the rakyat domicile, as a matter of fact there are plenty of other revenues that the rakyat is also exposed to such censored scenes -- just read the daily headlines.

We have already implemented the Classifications (U, 18SG, 18SX etc..) so the consumer who will be offended by a little bit of blood or a little bit of nudity can opt not to purchase according to the Classifications. For the liberals or should I say more "open-minded" folks such scene is nothing special but is part of the scripts which if removed may render the film as not complete.

If the governtment is really serious in helping out the licensees and providing the consumer with quality entertaining programs they should explore all other factors rather than just going after the "pirates" and part of what is needed is to relook into the censoring procedures.