MALAYSIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Dato’ Brian Law, Suaran Singh Sidhu, Woo Wai Teng and Nur Jannah Khairul Anuar, LAW Partnership
• a person who is a citizen of, or a permanent resi - dent in Malaysia in relation to an individual; and • a body corporate established in Malaysia and con - stituted or vested with legal personality under the laws of Malaysia in relation to a body corporate. While this issue remains untested in the Malaysian courts, the existing legal framework limits the scope of a “qualified person” for copyrighted works to natural persons. Joint Authorship Joint authorship is statutorily recognised in Malaysia. A “work of joint authorship” is defined under Section 3 of the CA 1987 as “work produced by the collabora - tion of two or more authors in which the contribution of each author is not separable from the contribution of the other author or authors”. As the CA 1987 and other regulations are silent on the determination of ownership percentages in regard to joint authorship works, percentages are determined by way of agreement between copyright owners themselves. Provided that the joint authorships are awarded copy - right ownership over the works, they are at liberty to exercise all rights tied to the copyright rights (see 3.4 Copyright Rights). Section 27 of the CA 1987 provides that the fees received by any of the copyright own - ers following an assignment or licence will be divided equally between all of the co-owners unless otherwise Under the CA 1987, a copyright owner has the exclu - sive right to administer control over the management of their works, such as to act against any infringement against their copyrights, as well as rights to issue licences for the copyright. The economic rights of a copyright owner include the right to control: agreed by the parties. 3.4 Copyright Rights • the reproduction in any material form in Malaysia; • the communication to the public rights in Malaysia; • the performance, showing or playing to the public rights in Malaysia; • the distribution of copies by sale or transfer of ownership in Malaysia; and
• the commercial rental to the public in Malaysia. Moral Rights Paternity rights Section 13 (2) of the CA 1987 enables copyright own - ers to claim ownership over the originality of the works. Appropriate credit is to be provided to the source and author of the work for works commercially used, ref - erenced, copied, included, showcased or shared with the public. Integrity rights Section 25 (2) of the CA 1987 protects copyright owners by providing them with authority to, inter alia, prohibit any unauthorised user from misrepresenting the work as that belonging to another author, or to significantly distort or modify the original work to a degree as to negatively impact the reputation of the original author. 3.5 Term of Protection and Termination Term of Protection in Malaysia The term of protection is as follows. • The life of the author plus 50 years after their death for literary, musical or artistic works. • 50 years from the year of first publication for films. • 50 years from the year of first performance, or from the year the performance was fixed in a sound recording for sound recordings and performer. • 50 years from the making of the first broadcast for broadcasts. Termination of Copyright Copyright protection (where entitled) is awarded as of right and would remain valid until the expiry of the term of protection of the work in question. Given the lack of a copyright registration regime in Malaysia, there are no specific means provided for terminating a copyright. 3.6 Collective Rights Management Systems In Malaysia, all body corporates intending to oper - ate as Collective Management Organisations (CMOs) must first be declared as a CMO by the director gen - eral of the Intellectual Property Office of Malaysia (MyIPO). These CMOs are governed by the CA 1987
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