KOTA KINABALU – Rising in support of local music practitioners in Sabah and Sarawak allegedly sidelined for more than 30 years by peninsula-based music bodies, the Upko party here has lauded an idea to form collective management of copyright (CMO) agencies for the two states.
Its president, Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau, hailed the federal government’s interest in setting up such bodies for the Borneo states.
The former Sabah deputy chief minister also proposed that Sabah and Sarawak formulate their own intellectual property laws to protect the rights of local music talent.
“Upko fully supports the government in giving its full trust to the Sabah Music Composers and Video Makers Association (Score) and Sarawak’s Armada Anak Seni Sarawak (Aras) to be given licences by the intellectual property body MyIPO (Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia) to establish the CMOs,” Madius said yesterday.
In a webinar on June 16, federal Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi had said there is no issue in setting up the CMOs to oversee the collection and distribution of music royalties for the states’ music creators.
He was quoted by Borneo Post as saying that the nature and music environment in Sarawak and Sabah are distinctive. He reasoned that, with thousands of local ethnic songs being composed by native music-makers, it is necessary for both states to appoint their own CMOs.
However, three Kuala Lumpur-based bodies – the Music Authors Copyright Protection Bhd (MACP), Public Performance Malaysia Bhd (PPM) and Recording Performers Malaysia Bhd (RPM) – have reportedly protested against the idea of forming the CMOs.
In a joint statement opposing the move, they said it would be chaotic if five licensing bodies were to approach music users for required licences.
It also said that the MACP, PPM and RPM each represent a distinct and separate category of music copyright owners – respectively, composers, authors and publishers; master recording owners; and, recording performers – and their rights do not overlap.
They also claimed that the overwhelming majority of rights-holders, including those in East Malaysia, are members of the MCAP, PPM and RPM, and that the existing operations of the three bodies follow global best practices.
However, in response, Malaysian Artistes’ Association (Karyawan) said that the three organisations’ transparency and professionalism have been called into question.
“We call on the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs minister to ignore the protests from these three bodies and proceed with the plan to set up the two new bodies while, at the same time, ensuring that only one company is entrusted to collect and distribute royalties for all the organisations licensed by the ministry,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.
Karyawan added that it backs a call for a single entity to undertake collection and distribution, saying it would then be possible to have any number of bodies representing rights-holders.
“The only thing MyIpo has to do is to ensure that there is no duplication of membership in any of the organisations that are licensed and not more than one body is entrusted with collection and distribution in order to avoid duplication.
“Ever since MRM (Music Rights Malaysia Bhd) was dissolved as the single collecting body, members of these bodies have been devoid of any news regarding their progress in royalty collections carried out post-MRM,” it said.
Supporting Karyawan on this matter, Madius called on the government not to be influenced by the arguments raised by the MACP, PPM and RPM in opposing the establishment of the MCOs in Sabah and Sarawak.
“The reality is that Sabah and Sarawak have their artistic talents, extraordinary voice and musical art individuals, however, they are 30 years behind from their Peninsular Malaysia counterparts due to the centralisation of power towards Putrajaya and the failure of bodies to develop, nurture and bring the music industry in Sabah to the next level.
“The country needs a decentralisation of the music industry’s development in terms of managing and controlling intellectual properties and end the centralisation of powers in Putrajaya.” – The Vibes, June 24, 2021
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