#SHOWBIZ: New guidelines for royalty collection to cover 3 main thrusts

New Straits Times

24-04-2025

THE Copyright Guidelines for Collective Management Organisations 2025 introduced by the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO) are based on three main pillars — accountability, governance and transparency.
MyIPO director-general Kamal Kormin said the current guidelines for music industry players also factored in the views of all sectors.
Responding to the concerns of three collective management organisations (CMOs) regarding the guidelines, Kamal said the steps taken by the government were aimed at better coordinating the royalty collection process.
"In the Copyright Act 1987, good governance has been outlined, namely by using guidelines. These take into account the views of all sectors involved, namely CMOs, users and contributors to the industry.
"When we created these guidelines, perhaps the CMO's view was that this was for governance, but in reality, that was not our objective," he said.
Kamal explained this to the media after opening the Copyright Seminar: A.l. in the Music Industry in conjunction with the National Intellectual Property Day 2025 celebration at the Intellectual Property Academy, Menara MylPO in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.
Present were MyIPO deputy director-general (strategic and technical), Yusnieza Syarmila Yusoff and deputy director-general (management) Sheikh Arifin Sheikh Mohd Noor.
Previously, three CMOs — the Music Copyright Protection Agency Berhad (MACP), Public Performance Malaysia (PPM) and Recording Performers Malaysia (RPM) — expressed concerns regarding the Collective Management Organisations Copyright Guidelines 2025.
In a statement, during an engagement session organised by the MyIPO Copyright Division with the management of collective management organisations on March 12, MACP, PPM and RPM expressed their stance that the guidelines were published and finalised unilaterally without consultation with them.
They claimed that most of the provisions in the guidelines were "ultra vires", meaning they exceed the jurisdiction provided under the Copyright Act 1987 and conflict with other laws in force.
Kamal said the Copyright Guidelines for Collective Management Organisations 2025 were also complemented by several follow-up programmes for music enthusiasts to better understand the royalty collection methods currently used.
"The establishment of these guidelines was made so that the collection process would be more transparent, clear and understandable, especially to the industry.
"From the first guidelines made, followed by an advocacy session, the aim was so that they could be improved by taking into account the views of all parties," he said.
Meanwhile, Kamal said the method or concept of ownership of intellectual property generated by artificial intelligence (AI), especially in the music industry, was still in the discussion stage at MyIPO.
Seeing the abundance of work produced with the help of AI technology, Kamal said the management of this issue was also discussed at the international level.
"The issue of AI in the digital industry is very important. The role of AI in industrial aspects, especially intellectual property, is being discussed internationally.
"So, in this issue, who does the intellectual property (AI-generated products) belong to? If we follow the concept of intellectual property, it belongs to 'human creation'.
"That is a basic matter and everyone is aware of it," he said.
Kamal said intellectual property ownership still used the existing policy or system, which is for works of human creation only.
"Ownership belongs to whoever creates it. Following the current trend, AI is also one of the things that contributes to creation," he said.