Copyright Law Research Paper

Generally, copyright law is concerned with the works protected from being improperly used by other parties. The protection of work is referred as an exclusive right which is granted to the copyright owner. The exclusive right of the copyright owner means that only the copyright owner is free to control and exploit the relevant rights, and prevent others from using the work without his/her consent. However, public are prohibited from excising the exclusive right of the copyright owner on a certain duration only. During the duration of the exclusive right protection, a copyright owner has the right to produce copies or reproduce the copyright work and to sell, import or export those copies or work, to communicate or perform or communicate into

In certain circumstances, the users may have access to and use the copyright works for a specific purposes that is allowable by the law. The use of the copyright works are not requiring the users to get prior consent from the owner without infringing copyright. The allowable purposes inter alia education, research, the media and access to information. In this discussion mean, the exception that will be explained further is on fair dealing, particularly from the legal position in Malaysia and United States of America (US).

The copyright exception also has been discussed in international treaties such as Berne Convention and the Agreement of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs Agreement). In Berne Convention whereby the treaty only focusing on literary and artistic works, Article 9 Paragraph 2 of the treaty allows the exceptions to be made but only with respect to the reproduction right. However, there are three steps must be fulfilled before any exception may be made. The steps are as follows:

(i) reproduction in special

Section 15(2) provides exceptions for copyright in works of broadcast in relation to section 13(2)(a), (g), (gg), (ggg), (gggg), (h) and (o) of the Act.

2.5 Section 16A(3)

Section 16A provides the exclusive right of a performer whereby the copyright owner has the rights to control the communication of the performance to the public, the fixation of an unfixed performance, the reproction or first distribution or commercial rental the fixation of a performance to the public.

However, there is an exception for copyright in works of performers’ right as stated under Section 16A(3). There are some types of recordings of performances which are permitted by Section 16A(3) because they are exceptions to the exclusive rights of the performer. If an act falls within one of the categories under Section 16A(3), there will be no infringement of the exclusive rights of the performer.

2.6 Section