Copyright in Malaysia

     As have been posted earlier in the earlier post on the discussion of copyright in general, here, in Malaysia, copyright is the exclusive right given to the owner of a copyright for a specific period. Copyright protection in Malaysia is governed by the Copyright Act 1987(http://www.agc.gov.my/Akta/Vol.%207/Act%20332.pdf). Historically, computer programs were not effectively protected by copyrights because computer programs were not viewed as a fixed, tangible object: object code was viewed as a utilitarian good produced from source code rather than as a creative work but however these situation has changed.

    There is no system of registration for copyright in Malaysia. In marked contrast to patent rights, copyright begins automatically on the creation of a 'work' without the need for compliance with any formalities. The only prerequisites for protection, which apply to all works that is eligible is protected automatically upon fulfillment of the following conditions :

          i) sufficient effort has been made to make the work original
             in character ;

         ii) the work has been written down, recorded or reduced to a
             material form;

        iii) the author is a qualified person ; or

        iv) the work is made in Malaysia or the work is first published 
             in Malaysia.

Copyright Protection

   Works eligible for protection are:

1. literary works;      
2. musical works;
3. artistic works;
4. films;
5. sound recordings;
6. broadcasts; and
7. derivative works.

These works shall be protected irrespective of their quality and purpose for which they were created. However, the copyright protection shall only extend to expression and not ideas, procedures, methods of operation or mathematical concepts as such.

   LATEST DEVELOPMENT IN MALAYSIA’S COPYRIGHT LAW

     Malaysia has already taken a number of steps toward updating its copyright laws to meet the challenges of the internet era. In response to the explosion of the internet industry, The Malaysian Copyright Act 1987 was replaced by the Copyright Act 1997 which came into force on the 1^st April 1999.  The provision of the new Act makes unauthorised transmission of copyright works over the Internet and infringement of copyright.  As for the definition of the literary work, it now includes table of compilations “whether or not expressed in words, figures of symbols and whether or not in a visible form”. 

    The amended Act encompasses some of the standards contained in the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty

 (WPPT), such as recognizing the copyright owner’s exclusive rights to control work that is transmitted via wire or wireless means to the public, including making available this work to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.

     This Act certainly would help to overcome any effective technological measures aimed at restricting access to work, removal or alteration of any electronics rights management information without authority, or distribution, importation for distribution or communication to the public, without authority, works or copies of works in respect of which electronic rights management information has been removed or altered without authority.   All in all, the new Act make it clear that an author has the right to be identified and has moral right against any mutilation and distortion of his work.

     These provisions are aimed at ensuring adequate protection of intellectual property rights for companies investing in the IT and multimedia environment.