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(Disclaimer : This article is meant merely as a basic guide and should
not be referred to as a professional advice. In most cases, individual
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Pheww….What a response I got from my last article. The idea of me writing this series of articles is to have those unsigned bands having their materials in the open, to know their rights and how to get covered from being ripped off or from uses of their works that are not favoring them . My first intention was to have this part of the series to appear last in the series. But I’ll bring in the main course and let the appertizers to come later, so you guys may choose of either to have them or not having them at all. Oh…and sorry about the stern and strong disclaimer. I was forewarned by the webmaster to make sure our asses are pretty well be covered. No pun intended. ;)
So, you have your own musical materials figured out, and you probably have recorded some on a CD. But how do you go about protecting your babies from harms, rather plagiarism or manipulation which in the end resulted in you barking on the edge of a cliff.
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Unfortunately, for us Malaysians we don’t have acopyright office like Americans do. What we do have is the intellectual office which recently have been corporatized and now operating under the banner Perbadanan Harta Intelek. But knowing that, only trademarks, patents and industrial designs enjoy the facility of one registration point made available by the institution, copyright is standing on its own. Copyright doesn’t have a center to where one can go up to and file in an ownership registration. So how do you proof what your materials are solely own by you exclusively and get the other parties to have your consent for the uses of your works?
There is a lot of ways actually. One way is to have them sent through a registered mail back to yourself and do not open it ever. Not until you are to contest somebody who you believe bulldozes your rights. What you have to sent usually depends on what you want to protect. In our case it is most probably our musical ideas, which you have to lay down in musical sheets, complete with the lyrics and send it back to you. In case of securing your EP or Demo or album etc, just send the recording (or commonly termed as ‘sound recording’) through the registered mail. This mail-to-self method is one of the oldest trick, so it is not 100% secured. So by doing just this doesn’t guarantee the dice will roll in your way.
Another best way is to play to as many people as possible as soon as you are done with a song. Friends, family members and whoever you think can be your witnesses saying like “Yuppers! He played this song to me on xxx date at xxxx”. In this way you may have some people affirming the works are yours. That is if they are willing to appear in your favor if anything might arises.
If you are doing a distribution of your own DIY materials, keeping invoices, purchase orders or delivery notes is definitely a good idea. What important is the date of when you start distributing your stuffs. Try to get something from the music store. Or get the store to help you in this matter since some of us just put their works there with the consent of the store, but not through a business transaction order from the store.
Another way, which is quite professional is to have a Statutory Declaration stamped and certified by the Commisioner of Oath. Statutory Declaration is a docuemnt in where you declare that whatever you are submitting to the Commissioner of Oath, and certified by them, are yours and originally yours. I have templates for basic scenarios where you may download by clicking on the link below. (please read the disclaimer above before downloading the templates) :
1. Statutory Declaration for Musical Works (Single Ownership) This is a Statutory Declaration for your musical works but of a single ownership. By which I mean only one person is the composer and the lyricist
2. Statutory Declaration for Musical Works (Joint Ownership) This is a Statutory Declaration for your musical works but of a joint ownerships. By which I mean multiple person owns the rights to the musical works, eg: 2 composers or 3 lyricists.
3. Statutory Declaration for Sound Recording (Single Ownership) This is a Statutory Declaration for your sound recording but of single ownership. By which I mean only one person is the owner or the right word is actually the producer of the sound recording. This is for those who doesn’t have a company under which this sound recording was suppose to be produced under.
4. Statutory Declaration for Sound Recording (Joint Ownership) This is a Statutory Declaration for your sound recording but of joint ownerships. By which I mean more than one person are the owners or the right word is actually the producers of the sound recording. This is for those who don’t have a company under which this sound recording was suppose to be produced under.
5. Statutory Declaration for Sound Recording (Company)
This is a Statutory Declaration for your sound recording but of a company ownership. By which I mean a company is the owner or the producer of the sound recording. Registering a company to produce you sound recording is encouraged. Enterprise is an affordable option.
Above are documents for the common cases. You need to have it certified by the commisioner of oath. It usually cost around RM4 - RM6. As complicated as it is, I again have to remind you that the documents might not suit your circumstances. The aboves shall act as guides. Again, although these document templates may be useful of your interest, individual circumstances may apply. You are strongly encouraged to seek legal advice where more professional and tailored advice is available. For more of related information regarding musical works, publishing, sound recordings and other things that matters, please contact the following bodies in Malaysia :
1. Perbadanan Harta Intelek Malaysia(Malaysian Intelectual Property Corporation)
2. RIM (Recording Industry Association of Malaysia)
3. MACP (Music Authors and Composers Protection)
4. PAIMM (Persatuan Akademi Industri Muzik Malaysia)
5. PPM (Public Performance Malaysia)
In another word, get your music done, keep all musical sheets, do the recording, and relevant documents, and start playing. Forget about the restless thought of being ripped off. Seriously, if you got ripped off, you just have to see what gonna happen with all the proofs you keep. Chances are you might still lose. But if you just going to make music and keep it in your head or in your closet, not playing them to the public or in a gig, or even not getting it recorded, that's even worse, isn't it? Getting ripped off might signify a positive thing, it could simply means you got some serious-feet-tapping songs and the public love it. Why in the world would you think the 'bastards' rip you off ? ;)
Well, till next time. Later.
>> DO YOU KNOW YOUR RIGHTS > (PART 1)
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