COPYRIGHT ACT, 1987*

(Act 332)

An act to make better provisions in the law relating to copyright and for other matters connected therewith.

BE IT ENACTED by the Duli Yang Maha Mulia Seri Paduka Baginda Yang Di-Pertuan Agong with the advice and consent of the Dewan Negara and Dewan Rakyat in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

PART I
PRELIMINARY

1.    Short title, application and commencement.

            (1)     This Act may be cited as the Copyright Act 1987 and shall come into force on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint and the different dates may be appointed for the coming into force of the different provisions of this Act.

            (2)     This Act shall apply throughout Malaysia.

2.    Extend of Application.

            (1)     Subject to this section and section 59A and regulations made under section 59A, this Act shall apply in relation to work made before the commencement of this Act as it applies in relation to works made after the commencement of this Act:

                     Provided that this section shall not be construed as reviving any copyrights which had expired before the commencement of this Act.

            (2)     Where only by virtue of subsection (1) copyrights subsist in works that were made before the commencement of this Act, nothing done before the commencement of this Act shall be taken to constitute an infringement of those copyrights.

            (3)     For the purpose of this section, a work the making of which extended over a period of time shall not be deemed to have been made before the commencement of this Act unless the making of the work was completed before such commencement.