OBJECTIVES

This chapter:
 lays down and discusses the laws, in
particular, the legislation, governing
intellectual property, such as copyrights
COPYRIGHT
 intellectual property:
– legal property rights over creations of the mind, both artistic
and commercial, and the corresponding fields of law
– intangible property
 area of law – sometime known as the law of industrial property
 intellectual or industrial property comprises:
1.Copyright
2.Designs
3.Patents
4.Trademarks
 exists in original works
 protects all works that owe their origin to the expressive efforts
of a writer, composer, artist or other creative individuals
 gives the individual the exclusive right to copy a particular form
of expression of literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work
 applies to the expression of an idea, not the idea itself and
belongs to the person who gives form to the idea – see
Donoghue v Allied Newspapers
 the Copyright Act 1987 – enacted to make better provisions in
the law relating to copyright and for other matters connected
therewith. The Act has undergone various significant updates
since then, with amendments to the Act taking effect in 1990,
1999, 2000 and 2003
• section 2 of the said Act defines ‘copyright’ as meaning ‘copyright
under this Act’
• section 7(1) of the Act provides that the following works are eligible for
copyright:
a) literary works
b) musical works
c) artistic works
d) films
e) sound recordings
f) broadcasts
• section 3 provides definitions of:
– ‘material form’
– ‘literary work’
– ‘musical work’
– ‘artistic work’
– ‘film’
– ‘sound recording’
– ‘broadcast’
• see Computer Edge Pty Ltd v Apple Computer Inc
• the word ‘copy’ in the law of copyright refers to the literal copying of a
work – altered versions of an original are not infringements of copyright
• information set out in a different way is not a breach of copyright –
see John Fairfax and Sons Pty Ltd v Consolidated Press Ltd
• copyright shall not subsist under this Act in any design which is
registered under any written law relating to industrial design
• designs are also known as industrial designs because they are
used for some industrial purpose, usually to make a particular
manufacturer’s products identifiable with that manufacturer and
readily distinguishable from those of its competitors
1. Nature of Copyright
 copyright in a literary, musical or artistic work, a film, or a sound
recording or a derivative work shall be the exclusive right to
control in Malaysia – see section 13(1) and 13(2) of the Act
2. Types of Copyright
 section 7(1) of the Act provides that the following works are
eligible for copyright:
– literary works including books, pamphlets, plays, drama,
scripts, articles, letters, reports, memoranda, tables and
compilations, computer programs
– musical works
– artistic works including paintings, drawings, diagrams,
maps, charts, engravings, photographs, sculptures, works
of architecture, works of artistic craftsmanship
– films
– sound recordings
– broadcasts
Literary Works
• section 3 defines ‘literary work’ as including:
a)novels, stories, books, pamphlets, manuscripts, poetical works and other writings
b) plays, dramas, stage directions, film scenarios, broadcasting scripts, choreographic works and
pantomimes
c) treatises, histories, biographies, essays and articles
d) encyclopaedias, dictionaries and other works of reference
e) letters, reports and memoranda
f) lectures, addresses, sermons and other works of the same nature
g) tables or compilations, whether or not expressed in words, figures or symbols and whether or not
in a visible form
h) computer programmes, but does not include official texts of the Government or statutory bodies of
a legislative or regulatory nature, or judicial decisions
Musical Works
• ‘musical work’ means any musical work, and includes works
composed for musical accompaniment – section 3
• musical work would cover the lyrics of songs as well as the music
Artistic Works
• section 3 defines ‘artistic work’ to mean:
a)a graphic work, photograph, sculpture or collage, irrespective
of artistic quality
b)a work of architecture being a building or a model for a
building
c)a work of artistic craftsmanship, but does not include a layout-
design within the meaning of the Layout-Designs of Integrated
Circuits Act 2000
• artistic works include:
– paintings
– sculptures
– drawings
– engravings
– photographs
– buildings or models of buildings
– other works of artistic craftsmanship

• although the definition is of artistic work, the section specifically

excludes artistic quality as a requirement – it does not have to be
‘good’ art
Circuits Layout
• a development of this area of law is the Layout-Designs of Integrated Circuits
Act 2000 which gives protection similar to copyright and patent rights in
respect to original circuit layouts for integrated circuits
• these rights are electronic layout (EL) rights
• the person who first makes an eligible layout is the owner unless he or she
did so as an employee, in which case the owner is the employer
• the owner of the EL rights has the exclusive right to copy, manufacture or to
exploit the layout commercially
Film
• section 3 – ‘film’ means any fixation of a sequence of visual images on
material of any description, whether translucent or not, so as to be
capable by use of that material with or without any assistance of any
contrivance—
a)of being shown as a moving picture
b)of being recorded on other material, whether translucent or not by
the use of which it can be so shown, and includes the sounds
embodied in any soundtrack associated with a film
• ‘sound recording’ – any fixation of a sequence of sounds or of a
representation of sounds capable of being perceived aurally and of
being reproduced by any means, but does not include a soundtrack
associated with a film
• ‘broadcast’ – a transmission, by wire or wireless means, of visual
images, sounds or other information which:
a)is capable of being lawfully received by members of the public
b)is transmitted for presentation to members of the public, and
includes the transmission of encrypted signals where the means for
decrypting are provided to the public by the broadcasting service or
with its consent
 COPYRIGHT IN GENERAL

1. Publication
 there is no requirement under the Copyright Act to register copyright – it
comes into existence upon publication of the work
 a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work will be published only if copies
of the work have been supplied to the public – see section 4
 the Director General of the Corporation
– the Controller of Copyright
 no copyright shall subsist otherwise than by virtue of the Copyright Act
• the following derivative works are protected as original
works:
a) translations, adaptations, arrangements and other
transformations of works eligible for copyright
b) collections of works or collections of mere data, whether
in machine readable or other form, eligible for copyright
which, by reason of the selection and arrangement of
their contents, constitute intellectual creation
2. Nature and Duration of Copyright
 copyright does not last forever
Nature of copyright
 under the Copyright Act:
– the nature of copyright as regards design documents and models:
see section 13A
– the effect of exploitation of design derived from artistic work: see
section 13B
– things done in reliance on registration of design: see section 13C
– nature of copyright in works of architecture:
see section 14
– nature of copyright in broadcasts: see section 15
 – where the owner of the copyright in any literary, musical or artistic
work authorizes a person to incorporate the work in a film and a
broadcasting service broadcasts the film in the absence of any
express agreement to the contrary between such owner and person,
it shall be deemed that the owner of the copyright authorized the
broadcast: see section 16(2)
– the nature of performers’ rights – see section 16A

Duration of Copyright
• under section 17 – copyright in literary, dramatic and musical works lasts
for fifty years after the calendar year in which the author died
• if the work has not been published, performed or offered for sale
before the author dies, the copyright will last fifty years after the end
of the calendar year in which it was first published
• where there are two or more authors, the copyright will last for fifty
years after the death of the last surviving author
• for artistic works, sound recordings, broadcasts, films, television and
sound recordings and published edition of works – see sections 18–
22
 infringement of copyright – if a person reproduces in a material form,
the whole (or even part) of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work
that is subject to copyright, without the consent of the owner: section
36 of the Act
 copyright in a work is infringed when a person other than the copyright
owner or his licensee, does or authorizes any of the following acts:
– reproduces in any material form, performs, shows, plays or
distributes to the public, communicates by cable or broadcast the
whole work or a substantial part of it, either in its original or
derivative form; or
– imports any article into Malaysia for the purposes of trade or
financial gain, when the person knows or ought reasonably to know
that the making of the article was done without the consent or
licence of the copyright owner
• the scope of infringing acts has been substantially widened, in line with
the increasing overlap of Intellectual Property rights with Information
Technology
• the civil remedies for infringement of copyright are:
1. Injunction
– restrains the infringement or threatened infringement of the
copyright
2. Damages or an account of profits
– amount of money that will compensate the author for the loss
suffered as a result of the infringement; such as the fees lost in
the unauthorized performance of a musical work or the loss of
sales of a book
• restriction on importation of infringing copies – see section 39
• back-up copies of computer programs – see section 40
• the courts will therefore make an order permitting the plaintiff’s
representatives to enter premises to search for and remove
copies of the work or other material or documents relating to them
• Anton Piller orders can also be used against defendants who are
persistent in their breach
• see Anton Piller KG v Manufacturing Processes Ltd