[governance] Guest Memo (Jermy Malcolm): Copyright in Malaysia and the Fight For a Positive International IP Agenda

[James S. Tyre]

(This might interest some.)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/01/guest-memo-copyright-malaysia-and-positive-ip-agenda


JANUARY 19, 2013 | BY MAIRA SUTTON   
Guest Memo: Copyright in Malaysia and the Fight For a Positive International IP Agenda

We asked leading digital rights activists who have been involved in Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) negotiations to discuss copyright law and their advocacy work in the
countries where they are based.

This week, Jeremy Malcolm of Consumers International explains recent changes to Malaysia's
copyright law, and his current work in pushing for positive global standards that would
protect the rights of users against abusive copyright policies. Jeremy is the Project
Coordinator for Intellectual Property and Communications. He is based in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.

~

Malaysia's copyright law changed last year with the Copyright (Amendment) Act 2012, and
the changes were a mixed bag. On the positive side, the existing fair dealing exception to
copyright-the more narrowly defined counterpart to "fair use" in US law-was broadened, and
a specific exception for temporary electronic copies was added. But in exchange,
infringers are now liable for much tougher penalties, including six-figure statutory
damages. Tougher protections for digital locks are included too, including a crackdown on
the sale of circumvention devices - though unlike in the US, you are free to break a
digital lock that restricts you from exercising your fair dealing rights.

There were some copyright changes that Malaysia was pressured to adopt by the United
States, but which didn't find their way into these latest amendments. It was proposed to
make the possession of even a single copy of infringing content a criminal offence, and to
make landlords of premises where it was sold liable too. Since most Malaysians possess at
least one pirated DVD, this caused an uproar in the local newspapers, and the proposal was
dropped. Though I don't condone piracy, their reaction is understandable when you consider
just how expensive legitimate content is here. Malaysia's favourite breakfast dish is
called nasi lemak, and you could buy 90 plates of it for the cost of one original Blu-ray
disc.

One of the big problems is that copyright is a pretty invisible issue politically-except
perhaps in the United States and Europe, in the wake of the successful protests over ACTA,
SOPA and PIPA. Elsewhere in the world, people don't think about copyright, and newspapers
don't report on it.  Therefore, there is little political risk for the government in, for
example, extending the term of copyright protection by 20 years in exchange for increased
market access. Even if the value lost to the local economy from the extension of copyright
outweighs the value gained from new exports of local goods, the new exports are much more
newsworthy and will gain the government more votes than it loses from the extension of
copyright.

Although I am based in Malaysia, the work that I do for Consumers International is global.
We see it as important to promote some global standards for access to knowledge that can
offset the push from rights-holders for ever-increasing levels of copyright protection and
enforcement.

Some of this we have already seen happening through the good work being done at the World
Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to introduce new minimum copyright exceptions
for the blind and visually impaired, and for libraries. The problem is that historically
WIPO has been an organisation for the promotion of intellectual property rights, and so
having to balance these rights against other interests does not come naturally.  It is
made all the harder by the fact that the majority of the NGOs who participate in WIPO are
themselves rights-holder organisations, leaving the voice of consumers sidelined.

Therefore our approach has been to try a different venue, and we have settled on UNCTAD,
the UN Conference on Trade and Development.  It too has a mandate over intellectual
property issues, but from a development perspective, which makes it more favourable
towards the promotion of access to knowledge.

We have developed some proposals for UNCTAD to update the UN Guidelines for Consumer
Protection to protect consumers from abuse by rights-holders: for example, preventing the
use of digital locks to cut out your fair use or fair dealing rights, stopping them from
pushing updates to your digital devices that take away functionality, and requiring that
if you're sold a digital product such as an e-book, it should come by default with all of
the same rights that you'd have if you purchased a hard-copy.

We are now reviewing and drafting our proposed text for amendments to the UN Guidelines,
and will have final proposals this March. Before the proposals finally come before
governments in July this year, we will need your help to support these proactive
amendments that assert the rights of users over the single-minded interests of the content
industry.
--
James S. Tyre
Law Offices of James S. Tyre
10736 Jefferson Blvd., #512
Culver City, CA 90230-4969
310-839-4114/310-839-4602(fax)
jstyre at jstyre.com
Policy Fellow, Electronic Frontier Foundation
https://www.eff.org




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