Intellectual Creation in Database: A Superfluous Test?

Abstract

Prior to amendment of Section 8(1)(b) of the Malaysian Copyright Act 1987 in the year 2000, copyright protection was conferred to a database product, provided that sufficient effort had been used in the making of the work. In contrast, the current Section 8(1)(b) requires a more stringent test of originality, i.e., it should be an intellectual creation. However, the ambiguity of meaning in the amended provision has resulted in problems in applying that section. The lack of precise definition of what amounts to a database in the Copyright Act has caused confusion on whether or not the newly introduced test of intellectual creation is needed. This is due to the fact that a database seems to be protected as literary work which itself is protected only on the basis of sufficient effort. This paper discusses originality requirements applicable to databases according to the Copyright Act 1987 and the ambiguities in the Copyright Act 1987.