Malaysia Copyright Registration

Copyright is the exclusive right to control creative works by the owner and performer for a specific period governed by the Copyright act 1987. Malaysia's copyright subsists by virtue of the Copyright Act 1987 and copyright protection is accorded without any requirement of registration. However, in order to really protect your work, you will be better advised to record with Myipo of your creative work.

What ideas are copyrightable? Unfortunately, you cannot copyright an idea. You will need to express it in the form of either a writing, drawing or recording.

Works which are deemed eligible for copyrights :

* Musical Works

* Literary works

* Films

* Artistic works

* Sounds recording

* Broadcast

* Derivative works (derived from the first copyrighted work)

Duration period of copyrighted works in Malaysia.

Literary, Musical or Artistic Works

1. Generally, these categories of copyright work reflects to the human beings which shall subsist during the life of the author plus 50 years after the person's death.

2. Film, Sound Recordings and Performer

These categories of copyright work shall subsist for 50 years from the work was first published, fixed in a fixation for the film and sound recording. For performer, the copyright work shall subsist from the performances was perform or fixation in a sound recording.

3. Broadcasts

For the copyrights in broadcasts, it's protection occurred in way of transmission either by wire or wireless means, the period for fifty years shall be computed from the which the broadcasts was first made.

THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS

As Malaysia is a signatory to the Berne Convention, your copyright will be enforced in all 176 countries that are members.

1. Legal Rights

Author, copyright owner and performer is given an exclusive right to control under the copyright law. Legal rights that are given to them includes the rights to enforce their copyrighted works in cases for infringement either by civil or criminal action.

2. Economic Rights

Economic rights that are given to right holders includes rights of reproduction, rights of communication to public, rights to perform, showing or playing to the public, rights of distribution and rights of commercial rental and the right to share. These rights can be exercised during the period of protection governed under Copyright Act 1987. Economic rights allow the owner of rights to derive financial reward from the use of his works by the user or commercial purposes. Form of economic rights can be by way of assignment, licensing and testamentary disposition.

3. Moral Rights

* Paternity Rights

These rights allows the author to claim the originality rights of his or her creation.

* Integrity Rights

This right authorizes the author to prevent any users from distortion, mutilation or other modifications of his or her works whereby the result of the modification will significantly alter the original work and adversely affect the author's honour or reputation.

WHAT ARE COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENTS?

Whoever use any copyrighted works without consent or authorization from the author, copyright owner and performer, it may constitute an infringement under Copyright Act 1987. Amongst the act of infringement includes :

* reproduces in any material form, performs, shows or plays or distributes to the public

* imports any article into Malaysia for the purpose of trade or financial gains

* makes for sale or rent any infringing copy

* sells, rent or by way of trade, exposes or offers for sale or rent any infringing copy

* distributes infringing copies

* possesses, otherwise than for his private and domestic use, any infringing copy

* exhibits in public any infringing copy by way of trade

* makes or has in his possession any contrivance used or intended to be used for the purpose of making infringing copies

Common Copyright Infringements

What can you do if you found that your copyrighted content was copied and subsequently uploaded to the internet or was published in some other medium? And assuming without your permission.

What you can do then,

You can raise complaints directly to the website operator or you can contact the person who copied your content and subsequently publish it in some other medium for a start. At the same time, you can also complain it to the Malaysian Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism (KPDNKK) where copyright infringement is treated as an offence under the Copyright Act 1987. The content owner can directly lodge report to the KPDNKK Complaints Unit so that further investigation can be carried out. You can also complain it to Youtube or any other internet medium if it is copied and publish there without your permission. However in such case, there will be no action taken by the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism (KPDNKK).

Under the Malaysian Copyright Framework, Myipo offers copyright recordation through Copyright Voluntary Notification System and as such, it would be advisable for you to file for notification with Myipo just to prove that you are the first person to file for the work. This is of paramount importance if you are going to have to sue others for infringement in some distance date as otherwise you would not benefit from your intellectual property. Filing for notification with Myipo is a simple process and creators of work of importance should execute this process as soon as they have created the work. Even though the law says once you have created your work, you are accorded copyright; it would however give you little protection in the real world. You might want to seek advisory on copyrights be emailing us your request at terry@patentagentip.com