Porno confusion forces Malaysian name change

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- A government agency in Malaysia has been forced to change its name to avoid confusion among many members of the public that it is involved in the promotion of pornography.

For more than a decade since it was founded Phonographic Performance Malaysia (PPM) has been mistakenly identified by members of the public as a purveyor of sex films, the Star newspaper reported Tuesday.

WHAT'S IN A NAME? • Pornogrpahy - n. Explicit description or exhibition of sexual activity in literature, films, etc. intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic feelings   • Phonography - n. Writing in (esp. shorthand) symbols corresponding to sounds of speech; recording of sounds by phonograph (an earlier form of record player)   Source: Oxford English Dictionary

In fact the agency, which comes under the Consumer Affairs Ministry, is a music licensing body collecting royalties for the public use of copyrighted material.

One senior officer at the ministry told the Star that the phonographic/pornographic confusion has become so bad that he had taken dozens of calls from members of the public demanding to know why the government was involved in a pornography company.

The officer said he would patiently tell callers to check their dictionaries before getting all fired up over the issue.

PPM Chief Executive Officer Tan Ngiap Foo said he had taken much of the flak from complete strangers haranguing him for heading such a "dirty" company.

"I have clients who purposely write PPM checks as "Photographic Performance Malaysia'' just to avoid the phonographic word, linking the word with pornography,'' Tan told the Star.

Tan will now be looking forward to a quieter life with the agency renamed as the more neutral "Public Performance Malaysia Sdn Bhd."