Malaysia protects authors of works first published in Malaysia and works first published outside Malaysia and simultaneously published in Malaysia within 30 days. With regard to joint authorship Malaysia protects works if any of the authors is a citizen or permanent resident of or body corporate established in Malaysia.

The Minister may make regulations applying any of the provisions of the Copyright Act to right holders of a specified country irrespective of whether this country is or is not a party to a treaty that Malaysia is a party, based on reciprocity.

Foreign authors enjoy protection in Malaysia concerning performance rights and digital exploitation of works.

Malaysia protects performers whose performance takes place in Malaysia, is incorporated in a protected sound recording or has not been fixed in a sound recording but is included in a broadcast qualifying for protection.

Sound recordings are protected as works eligible for copyright; therefore, the same eligibility criteria that apply to works also apply to sound recordings (phonograms) and producers thereof.

The Minister may make regulations applying any of the provisions of the Copyright Act to right holders of a specified country irrespective of whether this country is or is not a party to a treaty that Malaysia is a party, based on reciprocity.

Foreign performers and producers of phonograms (sound recordings) enjoy protection in Malaysia concerning performance rights and digital exploitation of their fixed performances and phonograms (sound recordings) respectively.

“National Treatment” refers to the assimilation of the treatment of foreign right holders to that of domestic right holders. It is a basic rule of most international conventions and mandates that foreign rights holders from contracting countries must receive the protection within any other contracting country as that country grants to its own nationals, ensuring equal rights under the scope of the relevant convention.

General national treatment obligations are set out in Article 5 of the Berne Convention and Article 2 of the Rome Convention, providing that the members of respective conventions must grant to each other’s nationals the rights provided in the convention. Berne Convention also extends the national treatment to “the rights which their respective laws do now or may hereafter grant to their nationals,” while Rome Convention members are not obliged to extend national treatment to the rights of performers and producers of phonograms which are accorded under their national law over and above the rights enshrined in the Rome Convention.

The criteria for eligibility for protection are provided in Article 3 of the Berne Convention and Articles 4 and 5 of the Rome Convention. With regards to national treatment of producers of phonograms, members of the Rome Convention may reserve the right not to apply either the criterion of fixation or that of publication of the phonogram.

As per WIPO, the total number of members to the key treaties above is as follows:

Berne Convention: 181 Members
Rome Convention: 98 Members
WIPO Copyright Treaty: 118 Members
WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty: 114 Members
TRIPS Agreement: 166 Members

This is a high-level overview concerning national treatment of music authors, performers and producers of phonograms; for comprehensive and detailed provisions, refer to the laws of each country. The overview:

1) details only the criteria applicable to foreign rights holders, without including the broader set of qualification rules for domestic protection that do not concern them,

2) is limited to performance rights and digital exploitation of recorded music, including works and other protected objects:

- “Performance rights” include radio and TV broadcasting, public performance, and communication to the public,

- “Digital exploitation” includes reproduction rights, distribution rights, communication to the public and making available rights.

The term "based on reciprocity" used in the overview for some countries means that Country A will protect the works of authors or other right holders who are nationals of Country B that is not a member of treaties Country A is a party to, and whose works or other protected objects were first published outside of Country A, only if Country B offer similar copyright protection to Country A’s authors or other rights holders and works and other protected objects respectively first published in Country A.

The term "treaty" in the overview includes conventions and international agreements.