Copyrighting it right

NOW that the families involved have come together to set the record straight, Tanah Pusaka is finally getting its crediting right. Tan Sri Ahmad Merican is the recognised composer of the music and Wan Ahmad Kamal the lyricist for the tune.

“MACP ( Music Authors Copyright Protection) has been crediting Tan Sri Ahmad Merican as the composer of the music. However, it has only recently come to light that Wan Ahmad Kamal is the lyricist for the song. Arrangements are thus being made to ensure that his widow gets her fair share of the royalties derived from the public performance of the song,” revealed Datuk Freddie Fernandez, Malaysian Artistes’ Association ( Karyawan) president and founding chairman of MACP.

Copyrighting has been a long- standing issue in Malaysia – many artistes have failed to realise what is owed to them.

According to Fernandez, copyright is automatically bestowed on the person who originates a particular work. Problems only occur when more than one person claims to have originated the same work. When this happens, the onus is on both parties to prove that they originated the work.

“There is an organisation called the Intellectual Property Organisation of Malaysia, under the Ministry of Domestic Trade or MyIpo, where you can register a copyrighted work. Once you have done so, this serves as proof of copyright, and anyone doing so later, will not be able to prove that they originated the work,” he explained.

He added that for songs recorded a long time back, the best option would be to try and get witnesses who were present at the recording, like the music arranger, sound engineer, producer and so on.