WWLegal.com :: Malaysia simplifies licensing of music for ringtones

Malaysia simplifies licensing of music for ringtones
Posted on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - 11:17 AM

The Recording Industry Association of Malaysia (RIM) has set up a one-stop centre to licence local music repertoire for digital distribution.
The move is to address the complex licensing issues associated with the digital distribution of music, it said. But for now the licensing is restricted to ringtones, as a test.

Previously, a content provider - a telecommunications company, for example - that wanted to sell "truetones" (a ringtone that contains an actual recording of a song) had to obtain a total of five licences.

It had to obtain separate licences from the Phonographic Producers of Malaysia (PPM), Music Authors Copyright Protection (MACP) and PRISM (Performers and Artistes Rights Malaysia).

Two separate rights are required - reproduction rights are needed to make one or more copies of the musical compositions and/or sound recordings for sale. Every sale of a truetone is an act of reproduction of musical composition and sound recording.

Then there's broadcast rights. This refers to the act of transmitting ringtone signals via SMS (short message service) to a consumer's handset.

Broadcast rights have to be obtained from three separate bodies - MACP on behalf of the songwriter, PRISM on behalf of the singer, and PPM on behalf of the recording companies.

On top of that, the telco also had to obtain two reproduction licences from the recording company and the publisher (or composer).

The licences for normal polyphonic tones and monophonic tones are more straightforward because reproductions of a recording only involve royalties payable to MACP and the publishers (or composers).

With the setting-up of RIM's one-stop shop, the process of licensing local music is now relatively simple. The content provider just needs to deal with the association.

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