COPYRIGHT ORPHANAGE A PROBLEM

Group wants to resolve legacy issue so that it can focus fully on its business

STUDIES on the orphan work problem in Malaysia are scarce. An orphan work is a copyright-protected work for which right shareholders (a person or organisation that owns the legal rights to something) are indeterminate or uncontactable, according to Wikipedia.

At times, the names of the originators or rightsholders are known, yet it is not possible to contact them because additional details cannot be found.

A work can also become orphaned through rightsholders being unaware of their holding, or by their demise (for example, deceased persons or defunct companies) and establishing inheritance has proved impracticable.

One needs to obtain the copyright holders’ permission before using their works (photos, paintings, novels, songs or movies).

However, in some situations, prospective users may not be able to identify, locate, or reach them for copyright clearance.

In this scenario, such works are deemed “orphans”, that is, copyrightprotected works with unlocatable or unidentified copyright holders.

This situation presents a challenge to potential users, such as individuals, companies and cultural heritage institutions.

Activities like preservation, digitisation, restoration, adaptation, modification or commercialisation of intellectual resources might be a problem for fear of suits from reappearing copyright holders.

As a result, the works might be abandoned from the above activities, resulting in a massive loss to society as cultural and social benefits from the orphan works can’t be further leveraged.

The orphan works problem is also real on a global scale.

For instance, in China, a woman donated the only known copy of a 1940s movie, Fake Phoenix, to the Shanghai Movie Museum.However, there was a hiccup during the restoration process because the museum was unsure of the film’s copyright holder’s real identity.

In Germany, several Jewish family photographs were recovered from an abandoned hotel room shortly after World War 2. The pictures were surrendered to the US Holocaust Museum for preservation.

Nonetheless, the process of securing the permission to use the images was a problem as the photographs’ copyright holders were unknown.

Closer to home, there are no official reports, statistics or cases on orphan works.

Despite the absence of such information or evidence of the consequences against Malaysian copyright society, it does not mean that this issue does not exist.

Thus, it is safe to practise diligent steps before using any copyright-protected work.

Users are encouraged to identify and locate rightsholders for their authorisation and keep records, including strategies used and numbers of attempts to reach them.

Legislative intervention is also required so that these works can be used and exploited legally.

Singapore and other jurisdictions have initiated a public consultation and devised mechanisms (for example, non-exclusive licensing schemes) to address the issue.

It is, therefore, time for us in Malaysia to follow suit and liberate works from copyright orphanage.

MUHAMAD HELMI MUHAMAD KHAIR

Law lecturer

UiTM, Negri Sembilan

AMMB Holdings Bhd (AmBank Group) said it has enough financial buffers to absorb the RM2.83 billion settlement for its involvement in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal without raising additional equity capital.

AmBank Group acknowledged that the global settlement reached with the Finance Ministry will make a dent in its earnings and said it has decided to resolve the legacy issue so that it can focus fully on its business.

“Undoubtedly, this settlement will have a material impact on the group’s financial year results for the period ending March 31.

“A RM2.83 billion provision will be reflected in our fourth quarter financial year 2021 results. Consequently, we will not be proposing any final dividend for the year ending March 31,” AmBank Group said in a statement late last week.

“The group remains financially resilient and has sufficient financial resources to absorb this settlement without having to raise additional equity capital.”

The ministry said in a statement on Friday AmBank Group has agreed to pay RM2.83 billion to settle all outstanding claims and actions in relation to its involvement in 1MDB.

The ministry also said the settlement is on top of the RM53.7 million penalty already imposed by Bank Negara Malaysia and paid by AmBank Group.

As part of the terms for the global settlement, the Securities Commission will require Ambank Group unit AmInvestment Bank Bhd to take corrective measures to strengthen its due diligence framework for submission of corporate proposals.

AmBank, the sixth largest domestic bank in Malaysia in terms of asset size, posted a net profit of RM1.34 billion in financial year 2020 and RM1.5 billion in financial year 2019.

The group said as at Dec 31 last year, the proforma impact to its core equity tier 1 and total capital ratio was estimated to be reduced from 13.52 per cent to 11.01 per cent and 16.39 per cent to 13.88 per cent, respectively, after the proposed provision for the global settlement.

It said it remained highly liquid, with liquidity coverage ratio of 155.8 per cent and net stable funding ratio for all operating entities above 100 per cent.

However, the group plans to raise tier 2 debt capital to increase total capital available for ongoing working capital purposes.

“As part of the global settlement, we will continue as we have for the past five years, to strengthen our fundamentals, particularly in terms of corporate governance by continuing to improve our systems and processes to strengthen due diligence.

“The settlement of these legacy matters will enable the AmBank Group to focus on executing on its strategies for its business without any distractions. AmBank Group is committed to ensuring that we continue to deliver value to shareholders, stakeholders and customers.”

Its share price closed seven sen, or 2.17 per cent, lower at RM3.16 on Friday.