JAMTANK GUIDE TO COPYRIGHT
by JD
Hi fellow Jamtankers. You've just written a song which you knew would be the killer-hit of the year. You've played the song at gigs with your band and everybody's been telling you how great the song is. Suddenly, one day you hear a song on the radio that sounds exactly like it!!! What do you do? What can you do? More importantly, what should you have done to protect your rights if ever this situation arises?
Every musician, songwriter, band member (that's YOU!!!) should be equipped with the basic knowledge of copyright and copyright law. Know your rights. Music is a business, and the new generation of musicians must not only be musically adept, but also business & legal-savvy.
The first part of this article deals with copyright law. It explains as simply as possible what is copyright, as applied to us musicians and songwriters. In the follow-up to this article, I'll talk about music publishing. Most of the points here have been extracted from my studies at ICOM. Your band leader should grab a copy of the Copyright Act 1987 which is available at major book stores (e.g. MPH) for around RM15. Books related to statutory topics may be a turn-off at first, but trust me, you'll wish you've known all these things much earlier.
I would like to thank Mr. Jonathan Selvasegaram, ex-legal advisor of RIM for the fun lectures(never knew studying law could be so much fun) and the excellent dinner at Madam Kwan's (Melina of Tempered Mental was there too....wasn't the Fish Head Curry delicious?). Some of the information portrayed here has been extracted from MACPs website at www.macp.com.my but modified for easier understanding. I hope that I've presented the information as accurately and concisely as possible. I would like to apologize for any errors and I would welcome feedback from you guys who read the article.
Part 1 : Copyright
What is Copyright?
That No.1 hit-song that you've just written is categorized as a "musical work" and it includes the melody and lyrics (more on this later). Copyright in relation to a musical work is the exclusive right which the owner has over its use and his entitlement to rely on the law to prevent others from using such work without his consent.
The Copyright Act of 1987 defines copyright in relation to a musical work as being the exclusive right to:
reproduce a work in any material form;
communicate a work to the public;
perform, show or play a work to the public;
distribute copies of a work to the public by sale or transfer of ownership;
commercial rental of a work to the public
What makes my song eligible for Copyright?
Your song is an original song
Your song has been written down, recorded or otherwise reduced to material
form.
"Material form" here means any form (whether visible or not) of storage from which your song or a substantial part of it can be reproduced. This includes notation, tabs, MIDI sequences, your Cakewalk project file, even your band's jamming cassette recordings too.
Don't celebrate yet. Your song being eligible doesn't mean that it qualifies for copyright protection. Same thing goes for driving. After you're 17, you're eligible to drive, but you're not qualified to drive until you obtain your drivers license. Get it? OK, next step is...now that you know your song is eligible for copyright, how does it qualify for protection, so that your rival songwriter doesn't rip-it-off from you?
How does my song qualify for protection?
The author (the composer...which means the one
who wrote the song), or joint authors (maybe you wrote the songs with
your bandmates) is at the time when the song was composed a qualified
person.
Your song is first published in Malaysia
Your song was composed in Malaysia
Sorry guys. More jargon and definitions. And the point about "published" needs to be be covered in Part 2. And "qualified person"? What's that? It simply means that you are :
i) "warganegara" Malaysia, or
ii) a permanent resident in Malaysia.
Who owns the Copyright?
The author of the work is the first owner of the copyright. However, where
the work is written by an employee in the course of his duties, then the
employer is regarded as the legal author of the work. On the other hand
where the making of a work is commissioned and in the absence of any agreement
to the contrary, the author and the ownership of the copyright by him
is only surrendered if he should assign his exclusive rights to the commissioning
party.
OK this paragraph I have to admit is cut-and-paste.
Well, it just means that the author, YOU, are the "first owner"
of the copright. We'll learn later how you can "lose" the ownership
of the copyright.
If, by any chance you're employed by a publishing house or production house, and they pay you to write songs, jingles, background music, the employer is regarded as the owner. If you're commissioned to write a song for Siti Nurhaliza's record label, you'll lose your ownership by assigning your rights to them (usually got written agreement lah...)
What is the Duration of Copyright?
Very simple, as long as you're alive +PLUS 50 years after your death.
So here's what you should do
Record your song (quality doesn't matter) onto any format CD, MD, VHS,
cassette, MP3 whatever...notate it, tab it, sequence it...it has to be
reduced to "material form". The Copyright Act doesn't mention
it but you must remember LABEL and DATE it clearly!!! Yes, check your
old jamming cassettes now.....if you still have them!!!
Next, become a member of MACP or alternatively sign a publishing agreement with a publisher (check that they are MACP members). More on publishing next time round!!!
Jedidiah Wong
jedidiah@maxis.net.my
www.popshuvit.net
Comments? Suggestions?
Email me: contact@jamtank.com