members and the affiliated societies annually after deducting the administration costs, mainly based on the popularity of the relevant works. About 80% of the fees collected go to 20% of its members, who are the authors of evergreen songs.

 

 

As musical works are protected for the life of the authors plus fifty years after the death copyright owners have the exclusive rights to control certain uses of the works, which include public performance or communication of the works to the public. This is so stated in section 13(1) of the Copyright Act 1987.

 

The licenses granted by MACP could be for one single event or a certain period of time. Annual licenses may also be granted, depending on the need of the licensees. Karaoke lounges, nightclubs, pubs, restaurants, hospitals, banks, cinemas, buses and many others are examples of businesses which are required to apply for MACP licenses for their use of musical works.

 

 

There has been an increasing awareness of the public as regards the need to apply for licenses from MACP for the use of musical works, compared to the early years when there was a resistance from the public.

 

 

In general, the licensees comply with the terms of licenses granted by MACP. Among the licensees shopping malls and hotels in particular, are the most compliant licensees.

 

 

As licenses granted by MACP are in nature contracts between the licensees and MACP, there is always room for negotiation for the terms such as the tariffs charged. Small-scaled businesses, for instance, do ask for discounts for the tariffs they have to pay MACP.

 

 

The enforcement actions carried out by the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism focuses mainly on piracy, which is an infringement of the reproduction right; while the use of musical works governed by MACP falls within the scope of public performance or communication to the public of the works. There are not many offenders of the latter who have been prosecuted for the criminal offences in the courts of law compared to those involving pirated works.

Q: How serious is the problem of local websites facilitation illegal downloads of music?
 
There have been local websites which offered illegal downloads of songs. But when alerted with the unlawful use of musical works those websites ceased their opertion.

Q: What is the cause of illegal downloads? Is it due to lack of legitimate alternatives or the rigidity in the traditional music sales?

There were previous attempts such as retails shops which were legally authorized to offer the public to choose the songs they refer and burn them on CDs whereby each song was charged RM3, but Failed to receive positive response from the public. It is probably not of the culture of the young generation to buy CDs. Despite the reasonable fees charged, the public are still inclined to free downloads from the Internet.

Q: Is there any attempt to explore new means of selling music which at the same time gets rid of the piracy problem?

Apart from ringtone download deals with telecommunication companies, there are also business bargains concluded with computer manufacturers which sell computers under packages inclusive of free downloads of music, the fees of which are paid by the computer manufacturers rather than the computer users.

 

korea copyright commission

Malaysia correspondent