WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION 
ORGANISATION MONDIALE DU COMMERCE 
ORGANIZACION MUNDIAL DEL COMERCIO 
Council for Trade-Related Aspects of 
Intellectual Property Rights IP/N/IIMLT/C/l 
18 May 2000 
(00-2048) 
Original: English! 
anglaisl 
ingles 
MAIN DEDICATED INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 
LAWS AND REGULATIONS NOTIFIED UNDER 
ARTICLE 63.2 OF THE AGREEMENT 
MALTA 
The present document reproduces the textl of the Copyright Act, 2000 (Act N° XlII of 2000), 
as notified by Malta under Article 63.2 of the Agreement (see document IPINIlIMLTIl). 
Conseil des aspects des droits de propriete 
intellectuelle qui touchent au commerce 
PRlNCIP ALES LOIS ET REGLEMENTATIONS CONSACREES A LA 
PROPruETE INTELLECTUELLE NOTIFIEES AU TITRE 
DE L'ARTICLE 63:2 DE L'ACCORD 
MALTE 
Le present document contient le textel de la Loi sur le droit d'auteur, 2000, (Loi n° XlII 
de 2000), notifiee par Malte au titre de l'article 63:2 de l'Accord (voir le document IPIN/IIML TIl). 
Consejo de los Aspectos de los Derechos de Propiedad 
Intelectual relacionados con el Comercio 
PRlNCIP ALES LEYES Y REGLAMENTOS DEDICADOS A LA 
PROPIEDAD INTELECTUAL NOTIFICADOS EN VIRTUD 
DEL P ARRAFO 2 DEL ARTicULO 63 DEL ACUERDO 
MALTA 
En el presente documento se reproduce el texto1 de la Ley de Derecho de Autor, 2000 
(Ley N° XlII de 2000), notificada por Malta en virtud del parrafo 2 del articulo 63 del Acuerdo (vease 
el documento IPINIlIMLTIl). 
) In English only.fEn anglais seulement./En ingIes solamente. IPINIl/MLT/CIl 
Page 2 
A BILL 
entitled 
AN A CT to make new provision in respect of copyright and neighbouring 
rights and certain "sui generis" intellectual property rights in 
substitution of the provisions of the Copyright Act, Cap 196. 
BE IT ENACTED by the President, by and with the advice and 
consent of the House of Representatives, in this present Parliament 
assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-
1. This Act may be cited as the Copyright Act, 2000, and shall Short title and 
come into force on such date as the Minister responsible for the commencement. 
protection of copyright may by notice in the Gazette establish and 
different dates may be so established for different provisions and 
different purposes thereof. 
PART I : DEFINITIONS 
2. (1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires - Interpretation. 
"artistic work" shall include, irrespective of artistic quality, 
any of the following, or works similar thereto: 
(a) paintings, drawings, etchings, lithographs, 
woodcuts, engravings and prints; 
(b) maps, plans, diagrams and three-dimensional works 
relative to geography, science or topography, but excluding 
semiconductor product topographies; 
(c) works of sculpture; 
(d) photographs not comprised in an audiovisual work; 
(e) works of architecture in the form of buildings or 
models; and 
(f) works of artistic craftsmanship, including pictorial 
woven tissues and articles of applied handicraft and industrial 
art; 
"audiovisual work" means a work that consists of a series of. 
related images which impart the impression of motion, with or 
without accompanying sounds, susceptible of being made visible 
and, where accompanied by sounds, susceptible of being made 
audible; IP/N/1/MLT/C/l 
Page 3 
"author" means the natural person or group of natural persons 
who created the work eligible for copyright but in the case of an 
audiovisual work it includes the principal director but excludes 
the producer of the first fixation of the audiovisual work; 
"Board" means the Copyright Board established under section 
45 of this Act; 
"body of persons" means any company or association of 
persons whether corporate or unincorporated, whether vested with 
legal personality or not, and includes any other body however called 
having legal personality; 
"broadcasting" means the transmission by wireless means for 
the public reception of sounds or of images and sounds or of the' 
representations thereof, including transmission by satellite. 
Broadcast does not include a rebroadcast; 
"broadcasting authority" means the Broadcasting Authority 
established by section 118 of the Constitution; 
"broadcasting organization" means any broadcaster whether 
licensed under the Broadcasting Act or under any other law, and 
includes a broadcasting contractor operating in Malta; 
"cable retransmission" means the simultaneous, unaltered and 
unabridged retransmission by a cable or any other material carrier 
for reception by the public of an initial transmission by wire or 
over the air, including that by satellite, of television or radio 
programmes intended for reception by the public, from within Malta 
or from a State in which the exclusive right to authorize cable 
retransmission of works eligible for copyright or neighbouring 
rights is protected under an international agreement to which Malta 
is also a party; 
"collecting society" means any organization which manages 
or administers copyright or neighbouring rights as its sole purpose 
or as one of its main purposes as regulated by the provisions of 
this Act; 
"collective work" means a work which has been created by 
two or more physical persons at the initiative and under the direction 
of a physical person or legal entity with the understanding that it 
will be disclosed by the latter person or entity under his or its own 
name and that the identity of the contributing physical persons 
will not be indicated in the work; IP/N/1/MLT/C/1 
Page 4 
"commercial exploitation" in relation to semiconductor 
product topographies means the sale, rental, leasing or any other 
method of commercial distribution, or an offer for these purposes: 
Provided that where exploitation takes place under conditions 
of confidentiality to the extent that no further distribution to third 
parties occurs there shall not be deemed to have been "commercial 
exploitation"; 
"communication to the public" means the transmission of a 
work by wire or wireless means and for the purpose of section 7 of 
this Act includes the making available to the public of the work in 
such a way that members of the public may access the work from 
a place and at a time individually chosen by them: 
The mere provision of physical facilities for enabling or 
making of a communication does not in itself amount to an act of 
communication to the public; 
"communication to the public by satellite" means the act of 
introducing, under the control and responsibility of a broadcasting 
organization, the programme-carrying signals intended for 
reception by the public into an uninterrupted chain of 
communication leading to the satellite and down towards the earth 
and the State where such an act takes place shall be deemed to be 
the place of origin of that act of communication to the public by 
satellite: 
Provided that if the programme-carrying signals are encrypted, 
then there is communication to the public by satellite if the means 
for decrypting the broadcast are provided to the public by the 
broadcasting organisation or with its consent: 
Provided further that ifthe act of communication to the public 
by satellite takes place in a State other than Malta or other than a 
State in which the exclusive right to authorize or prevent the satellite 
broadcasting of a work eligible for copyright or neighbouring rights 
is protected under an international agreement to which Malta is 
also a party, if the programme-carrying signals are transmitted to 
the satellite from an uplink station situated in Malta, that act of 
communication to the public by satellite shall be deemed to .have 
occurred in Malta so that the rights provided for by this Act shall 
be exercisable against the person operating the uplink station, or 
else in the absence of an uplink station in Malta, if a broadcasting 
organisation established in Malta has commissioned the act of 
communication to the public by satellite, that act shall be deemed 
to have occurred in Malta and the rights provided for by this Act 
shall be exercisable against that broadcasting organisation; IP/N/1/MLT/C/l 
PageS 
"computer program" includes computer programs whatever 
may be the mode or form of their expression including those which 
are incorporated in hardware, interfaces which provide for the 
physical interconnection and interaction or the interoperability 
between elements of software and hardware and preparatory design 
material leading to the development of a computer program: 
Provided that the nature of the preparatory design material is 
such that a computer program can result therefrom at a later stage; 
"copy" means a reproduction in written or graphic form 
including digital reproduction, in the form of a recording or 
audiovisual work, or in any other material form, so however that 
an object shall not be taken to be a copy of an architectural work 
unless the object is a building or model; 
"copyright" means copyright under this Act; 
"database" means a collection of independent works, data or 
other materials arranged in a systematic or methodical way and 
individually accessible by electronic or other means without it being 
necessary for these materials to have been physically stored in an 
organized manner but does not extend to computer programs used 
in the making or operation of a database accessible by electronic 
means comprised within the term "computer program"; 
"distribution" means the making available to the public by 
sale or other transfer of ownership; 
"fixation" means the embodiment of sounds, images, or both, 
or digital representations thereof, in any material form, from which 
they can be perceived, reproduced or communicated through a 
device; 
"lawful" means done in compliance with provisions of this 
Act, and "lawfully" shall be construed accordingly; 
"lending" means making available for use, for a limited period 
of time and not for direct or indirect economic or commercial 
advantage, when it is made through establishments which are 
accessible to the public: 
Provided that even when lending by such an establishment 
giVeS rise to payment of an amount, as long as this anlount does 
not go beyond what is necessary to cover the operational costs of 
the establishment, there is no direct or indirect economic or 
commercial advantage within the meaning of this Act; IP/N/1/MLT/C/1 
Page 6 
"licence" means a lawfully granted licence permitting the 
doing of an act controlled by copyright or neighbouring rights; 
"literary work" shall include, irrespective of literary quality, 
any of the following, or works similar thereto: 
(a) novels, stories and poetical works; 
(b) plays, stage directions, choreographic works or 
entertainment in dumb show, film scenarios and broadcasting 
script; 
(c) textbooks, treatises, histories, biographies, essays 
and articles; 
(d) encyclopaedias and dictionaries; 
(e) letters, reports and memoranda; 
(t) lectures, addresses and sermons; 
(g) computer programs, 
but save as provided in section 12 of the Statute Law Revision 
Act, 1980, does not include any written law, law report or judicial 
decisions; 
"Malta" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it by 
section 124 of the Constitution of Malta; 
"Minister" means the Minister responsible for the protection 
of copyright and neighbouring rights and includes to the extent of 
the authority given, any person authorised by the Minister in that 
behalf for any purpose of this Act other than for the purpose of 
section 59; 
"musical work" means any musical work, irrespective of 
musical quality, and includes works composed for musical 
accompaniment; 
"owner of copyright" means the author who is first owner, an 
assignee or an exclusive licensee, as the case may be, of a copyright 
and in the case of a collective work, the first owner of copyright 
shall be the natural or legal person under whose initiative and 
direction the work has been created; IP/N/lIMLT/C/l 
Page 7 
"perceptual disability" means a disability that prevents or 
inhibits a person from reading or hearing a literary, musical, 
dramatic or artistic work in its original format, and includes such a 
disability resulting from: 
(a) severe or total impairment of sight or hearing or 
the inability to focus or move one's eyes; 
(b) the inability to hold or manipulate a book; or 
(c) an impairment relating to comprehension. 
"performance" means the direct rendition of the work to a 
public which takes place under such circumstances that the works 
performed can be perceived by the public without any intermediate 
communication; 
"performers" includes singers, musicians, actors or other 
artists who sing, deliver, declaim, play in, act in or otherwise 
perform literary, musical and artistic works or expressions of 
folklore and includes also singers, musicians, actors or other aItists 
who sing, play in or perform in variety, circus and folklore shows 
or exhibitions; 
"person" includes a body of persons; 
"prescribed" means prescribed by regulations made under 
section 59 of this Act; 
"rebroadcast" means simultaneous broadcasting by one 
broadcasting organization of the broadcast of another broadcasting 
organization not under its control, whether situated in Malta or 
abroad, and "rebroadcasting" shall be construed accordingly: 
Provided that "later rebroadcast" shall mean only any such 
subsequent broadcast and "later rebroadcasting" shall be construed 
accordingl y; 
"rental" means making available for use, for a limited period 
of time and for direct or indirect economic or commercial 
advantage; 
"reproduction" means the making of one or more copies in 
any material form of a literary, musical or artistic work, audiovisual 
work or sound recording and includes storing such work in any 
medium by electronic means; IP/N/lIML T/CIl 
Page 8 
"satellite" means any satellite operating on frequency bands 
which, under international telecommunications law are reserved 
for the broadcast of signals for reception by the public or which 
are reserved for closed, point-to-point communication. In the latter 
case, however, the circumstances in which individual reception of 
the signals takes place must be comparable to those which apply 
in the first case; 
"semiconductor product" means the final or an intermediate 
form of any product consisting of a body of material which includes 
a layer of semiconducting material, having one or more layers 
composed of conducting, insulating or semiconducting material, 
the layers being arranged in accordance with a predetermined three­
dimensional pattern and intended to perform, exclusively or 
together with other functions, an electronic function; 
"semiconductor product topography" means a series of related 
images, however fixed or encoded, representing the three 
dimensional pattern of the layers of which a semiconductor product 
is composed and in which series, each image has the pattern or 
part of the pattern of a surface of the semiconductor product at any 
stage of its manufacture; 
"sound recording" means the fixation of a sequence of sounds 
or of a digital representation of sounds capable of being perceived 
aurally and of being reproduced, but does not include a soundtrack 
associated with an audiovisual work; 
"work of joint authorship" means a work produced by the 
collaboration of two or more authors in which the contribution of 
each author is not separable from the contribution of the other 
author or authors. 
(2) For the purposes of this Act the following provisions 
shall apply with respect to publication: 
(a) a work shall be deemed to have been published if 
copies thereof have been made available in a reasonable 
quantity for sale, rental, lending or in any other manner 
sufficient to render the work accessible to the public; 
(b) where in the first instance a part only of a work is 
published, that part shall be treated for the purposes of this 
Act as a separate work; 
(c) a publication in any country shall be treated as being 
a first publication notwithstanding that there has been an IP/N/lIMLT/C/l 
Page 9 
earlier first publication elsewhere, if the two publications took 
place within a period of not more than thirty days. 
PART II : COPYRIGHT 
Works eligible for 3. (1) Subject to the provisions of this section the following 
copyright. works shall be eligible for copyright: 
Qualification for 
copyright protection 
by virtue of authors. (a) artistic works; 
(b) audiovisual works; 
(c) databases; 
(d) literary works; 
(e) musical works. 
(2) A literary, musical, or artistic work shall not be eligible 
for copyright unless the work has an original character and it has been 
written down, recorded, fixed or otherwise reduced to material form. 
(3) A work shall not be ineligible for copyright by reason 
only that the making of the work, or the doing of any act in relation to 
the work, involved an infringement of copyright in some other work. 
(4) A database shall not be eligible for copyright unless by 
reason of the selection or arrangement of its contents, it constitutes the 
author's intellectual creation. Moreover the copyright conferred to a 
database shall not extend to its contents and shall be without prejudice 
to any rights subsisting in such contents themselves. 
4. (1) Copyright shall be conferred by this section on every 
work eligible for copyright of which the author or, in the case of a work 
of joint authorship, any of the joint authors, is, at the time when the 
work is made: 
(a) an individual who is a citizen of, or is domiciled or 
permanently resident in Malta or in a State in which copyright is 
protected under an international agreement to which Malta is also 
a party. IP/N/1/ML T/C/1 
Page 10 
Cb) a body of persons or a commercial partnership 
constituted, established, registered and vested with legal personality 
under the laws of Malta or of a State in which copyright is protected 
under an international agreement to which Malta is also a party. 
(2) The terms of copyright protection conferred by this Termofcopyright. 
section shall be calculated according to the following table: 
Type of Work 
(i) Literary, musical or 
artistic works and database 
(ii) Audiovisual works TABLE 
Date of Expiration of Copyright 
Seventy years after the end of the 
year in which the author dies, 
irrespective of the date when the work 
is lawfully made available to the 
public. 
Seventy years after the end of the 
year in which the last of the following 
persons dies: the principal director, 
the author of the screenplay, the 
author of the dialogue and the 
composer of music specifically 
created for use in the audiovisual 
work. 
(3) In the case of an anonymous or pseudonymous literary, 
musical or artistic work, or in the case of a collective work, the copyright 
in the work subsists until the end of the expiration of 70 years from the 
end of the year in which it was lawfully made available to the public or 
after the end of the year in which the work was made if it has not been 
made available to the public: 
Provided that when the pseudonym adopted by the author 
leaves no doubt as to his identity or in the event of the identity of the 
author becoming known during the period referred to in the preceding 
paragraph of this subsection or where in the case of collective works by 
a body of persons the natural persons who have created the work are 
individually identifiable in the versions of the work made available to 
the public the terms of copyright protection shall be calculated in 
accordance with the provision of paragraph (i) of the last preceding 
subsection. Qualification for 
copyright protection 
by reference to 
country where work 
is made or published. IP/N/1/MLT/C/1 
Page 11 
(4) In the case of joint authorship reference in the preceding 
table to the death of the author shall be deemed to refer to the joint 
author who dies last, whether or not he is a qualified person in terms of 
subsection 1 of section 4 of this Act. 
(5) In the case of a person who for the first time lawfully 
publishes or lawfully communicates to the public a previously 
unpublished work the copyright protection of which has expired, he 
shall benefit from a protection equivalent to the economic rights covered 
by copyright but limitedly for a period of twenty-five years from the 
time when the work was first lawfully published or lawfully 
communicated to the public. 
(6) Where a work is published in volumes, parts, 
instalments, issues or episodes and the term of protection runs from the 
time when the work was lawfully made available to the public, the term 
of protection shall run for each such item separately. 
5. (1) Copyright shall be conferred by this section on every 
work which is eligible for copyright and which is made or first published 
in Malta or in a State in which such works are protected under an 
international agreement to which Malta is also a party and which has 
not been the subject of copyright conferred by section 4 of this Act. 
(2) Copyright conferred on a work by this section shall have 
the same duration as is provided for in section 4 of this Act in relation 
to the same type of work. 
Copyright works of 6. (l) Copyright shall be confelTed by this section on every 
Government and work which is eligible for copyright and which is made by or under the 
international bodies. direction or control of the Government of Malta and also such 
governments of other States, international bodies or other inter­
governmental organisations as may be prescribed by the Minister 
responsible for the Industrial Property Office. 
(2) . Copyright conferred by this section on databases or on 
a literary, musical or artistic work shall subsist until the end of the 
expiration of seventy years from the end of the year in which it was 
first published. 
(3) Copyright conferred by this section on an audiovisual 
work shall have the same duration as is provided for by section 4 of this 
Act in relation to the same type of work. 
(4) Subsection (5) of section 4 shall apply in like manner to 
works eligible for copyright to which this section applies which, having IP/N/1/MLT/CIl 
Page 12 
been unpublished, are lawfully published or lawfully communicated to 
the public for the first time after copyright protection has expired. 
(5) Sections 4 and 5 of this Act shall not be deemed to confer 
copyright on works to which this section applies. 
7. Copyright in an audiovisual work, a database, a literary, Nature of copyright 
• 1 .. k h 11 b hi' . h h' in an audiovisual mUSlCa or artIStiC wor s a e t e exc uSlve ng t to aut onse or work, database, 
prohibit the doing in Malta in respect of the protected material in its Iit~r~. musical and 
totality or substantial part thereof, either in its original form or in any artlslic works. 
form recognisably derived from the original of any of the following: 
(a) the direct or indirect, temporary or permanent 
reproduction by any means and in any form, in whole or in 
part; 
(b) the rental and lending; 
(c) the distribution; 
(d) the translation in other languages including 
different computer languages; 
(e) the adaptation, the arrangement and any other 
alteration and the reproduction, distribution, communication, 
display or performance to the public of the results thereof; 
(f) the broadcasting or rebroadcasting or the 
communication to the public or cable retransmission; 
(g) display or performance to the public: 
Provided that the right to authorise or prohibit the cable 
retransmission of a television broadcast shall be exercisable only through 
a collecting society. 
8. The first sale in Malta of the original work enjoying copyright Exhaustion of the 
or of a copy thereof, when such sale is effected by or with the consent distribution right. 
of the copyright owner himself, shall exhaust the exclusive distribution 
right in respect of that work or its copy. 
9. Copyright in an audiovisual work, a database, a literary, mt;lsical Exceptions to 
or artistic work shall not include the right to authorize or prohibit ..:' copyright. IP/N/1/MLT/C/1 
Page 13 
(a) other than in the case of a computer program the doing 
of any of the acts mentioned in subsection (1) of section 7 by way 
of fair dealing for purposes of research, private use, criticism or 
review, or the reporting of current events, provided that, if such 
use is public, it is accompanied by an acknowledgement of the 
title of the work and its authorship, except where the work is 
incidentally included in a broadcast or rebroadcast or 
communication to the public or cable retransmission: 
Provided that when in terms of this paragraph an author of 
a work eligible for copyright suffers a derogation of his exclusive 
lending right he shall be entitled to a remuneration for such lending 
which can be collected individually or through a collecting society 
from the establishment lending such work or copies thereof other 
than State public libraries, universities and educational 
establishments licensed to operate by the State which are all 
excluded from such an obligation. In the calculation of such 
remuneration, in the case of literary, musical and artistic works 
only, account shall be taken of national cultural promotion 
objectives and in case of disagreement over the remuneration due, 
this shall be determined by the Board; 
(b) the doing of any of the aforesaid acts by way of parody, 
pastiche or caricature; 
(c) the inclusion in an audiovisual work, broadcast or 
rebroadcast, communication to the public or cable retransmission 
of any artistic work situated in a place where it can be viewed by 
the public; 
(d) the reproduction and distribution of copies of any artistic 
work permanently situated in a place where it can be viewed by 
the public; 
(e) the incidental inclusion of an artistic work in an 
audiovisual work, broadcast or rebroadcast; 
(f) the reproduction of a short part of a published work, by 
way of illustration, in writings or sound or audiovisual recordings 
for teaching purposes: 
Provided that such reproduction is compatible with fair 
practice and its extent does not exceed the extent justified by the 
purpose and its source and the name of the author shall, as far as 
practicable, be indicated; IP/N/1/MLT/C/1 
Page 14 
(g) the reproduction, for face-to-face teaching in activities 
do not serve direct or indirect commercial gain, to the extent 
justified by the purpose, of a published article or other short work 
or short extract of a writing, with or without illustrations: 
Provided that the act of reproduction is an isolated one 
occurring, if repeated, on separate and unrelated occasions, and 
there is no collective licence available (that is, offered by a 
collecting society in a way that the educational institution is aware 
or should be aware of the availability of the licence) under which 
such reproduction can be made:' 
Provided further that on any copy made under this subsection 
there shall be indicated as far as practicable its source and the 
name of the author; 
(h) the reading or recitation in public by a person of any 
reasonable extract from a published literary work if accompanied 
by a sufficient acknowledgement; 
(i) the making of single copies of works by public libraries, 
non-commercial documentation centres and scientific institutions 
for the purpose of study, scholarship or private research, provided 
no collective licence for such reproduction is available and no 
revenue is derived therefrom and no admission fee is charged for 
the communication, if any, to the public of the work thus used; 
U) the making of single copies of works by public libraries, 
non-commercial documentation centres and scientific institutions 
in order to preserve and, if necessary, in the event that it is lost, 
destroyed or rendered unusable, to replace a copy, or to replace, in 
the permanent collection of another similar library or archive, a 
copy which has been lost, destroyed or rendered unusable: 
Provided that it is impossible to obtain such a copy under 
reasonable conditions and the act of reproduction is an isolated 
case occuning, if repeated, on separate and unrelated occasions; 
(k) the doing of any of the aforesaid acts, at the request of a 
person with a perceptual disability or for a non-profit organisation 
acting for his or her benefit: 
Provided that this does not apply when the work in respect 
of which such an act is to be done is commercially available in a 
format specially designed to meet the needs of any person referred 
to in the above paragraph and may be located within a reasonable 
time, for a reasonable price with reasonable effort; IP/N/lIMLT/C/1 
Page 15 
(1) temporary acts of reproduction such as transient and 
incidental acts of reproduction which are an integral and essential 
part of a technological process, including those which facilitate 
effective functioning of transmission systems, whose sole purpose 
is to enable use to be made of a work or other subject matter, and 
which have no independent economic significance; 
(m) the reproduction of a work by or under the direction or 
control of a broadcasting organisation, made by means of the 
broadcasting organisation's own facilities and only for use in its 
own broadcast, where such reproduction or any copies thereof are 
intended exclusively for a lawful broadcast or rebroadcast and are 
destroyed before the end of the period of six calendar months 
immediately following the making of the reproduction or such 
longer period as may be agreed between the broadcasting 
organisation and the owner of the relevant copyright in the work: 
Provided that any reproduction of a work made under this 
paragraph may, if it is of an exceptional documentary character, 
be preserved in the archives of the broadcasting organisation, but 
shall not be used for broadcasting, rebroadcasting or for any other 
purpose without the consent of the owner of the relevant copyright 
in the work; 
(n) the communication to the public of a work, in a place 
where no admission fee is charged in respect of such 
communication, by any club whose aim is not profit-making; 
(0) any use made of a work for the purpose of a judicial 
proceeding or of any report of any such proceeding; 
ep) in the case of a computer program, the observation, the 
study or testing of the functioning of the program by the licensed 
user in order to determine the ideas and principles which underlie 
any element of the program if this is done whilst performing any 
of the acts of loading, displaying, running, transmitting or storing 
the program which he is entitled to do; 
(q) in the case of a computer program, the reproduction by 
the licensed user of the code and translation of its form 
indispensable to obtain the information necessary to achieve the 
interoperability of an independently created computer program with 
other programs, provided that these acts are confined to the parts 
of the original program which are necessary to achieve 
interoperability and the information necessary to achieve 
interoperability has not previously been readily available to the 
licensed user: IP/N/1/MLT/CIl 
Page 16 
Provided that any information obtained from the 
reproduction of the code and the translation of the form of a 
computer program made under this paragraph shall not: 
(i) be used for purposes other than to achieve the 
interoperability of the independently created computer 
program; 
(ii) be given to other persons, except when necessary 
for the interoperability of the independently created computer 
program; 
(iii) be used for the development, production or 
marketing of a computer program substantially similar in its 
expression to the original program, or for any other act which 
infringes copyright; 
(r) the making of a copy or a back-up copy, the translation, 
adaptation, arrangement and any other alteration of a computer 
program and the reproduction of the results thereof, in so far as 
this is necessary for the licensed user to make proper use of the 
program in accordance with its intended purpose, including error 
correction, and the right of the licensed user to make a back-up 
copy of a computer program may not be restricted or excluded by 
contract in so far as it is necessary for the use of that computer 
program; 
(s) in the case of a database, the performance of those acts 
which are normally necessary in order that the licensed user obtains 
access to the contents of the database and normal use thereof, in 
respect of the whole or part of the database which the user is 
licensed to use and any contractual provisions running counter to 
what is prescribed in this paragraph shall be null and void; 
(t) in the case of a database, any use which is necessary for 
the purposes of public security or for the purposes of an 
administrative procedure, to the extent justified by the purpose. 
10. Copyright in a work of architecture shall also include the 
exclusive right to authorize or prevent the erection of any building which 
reproduces the whole or a substantial part of the work either in its original 
form or in any form recognisably derived from the original: 
Provided that the copyright in any such work shall nOt include the 
right to authorise or prevent the reconstruction, in the same style as the 
original, of a building to which that copyright relates or the right to authorize 
or prevent the rental or lending of buildings or works of applied art. Copyright in a work 
of architecture. First ownership of 
copyright. 
Author's right to 
prohibit the 
mutilation, 
modification, 
distortion or 
subjecting to 
derogatory 
treatment of any 
work. IP/N/1/MLT/C/1 
Page 17 
11. (1) Copyright conferred by sections 4, 5 and 6 of this Act 
shall vest initially in the author or in the joint authors: 
Provided that in the case of computer programs and databases where 
a work is made in the course ofthe author's employment, in the execution 
of his duties or following the instructions given by his employer, the 
economic rights conferred by copyright shall be deemed to be transferred 
to the author's employer, subject to any agreement between the parties 
excluding or limiting such transfer, In respect of other works eligible 
for copyright, in such circumstances, subject to any agreement to the 
contrary between the parties, the copyright shall always vest in the author 
or joint authors, 
(2) Subject to the provision of the last preceding subsection-
(a) the name on a work purporting to be the name of 
its author shall be considered as such, unless the contrary is 
proved; 
(b) in the case of an anonymous or pseudonymous 
work, the publisher whose name is indicated in the work as 
such shall be deemed to be, unless the contrary is proved, the 
legal representative of the anonymous or pseudonymous 
author and shall be entitled to exercise and protect the rights 
belonging to the author under this Act. 
PART III : MORAL RIGHTS OF AUTHORS 
12. (1) It shall not be lawful for any person, including the 
assignee of the copyright or a licensee thereunder, without the author's 
consent, to mutilate, modify, distort or subject to any other derogatory 
action any work during its term of copyright in a way prejudicial to the 
honour or reputation of the author. 
(2) The author of a work eligible for copyright shall, until 
the expiry of copyright, in addition to copyright conferred in relation to 
that work, and also in those cases where copyright shall have been 
transmitted by assignment or by testamentary disposition enjoy the moral 
right -
(a) to claim authorship of his work, in particular, the 
right that his name as far as practicable, be indicated in a 
~rominent way on the copies, and in connection with any 
public use of that work; or IP/N/1/MLT/C/l 
Page 18 
(b) that his name be not indicated on the copies, and 
in connection with any public use, of his work, or that his 
pseudonym be so indicated: 
Provided that during the lifetime of the author of a work it shall 
not be lawful to transmit any of the aforesaid moral rights. 
(3) On the death of the author-
(a) the right passes to such person as he may by 
testamentary disposition specifically direct, provided that on 
this person's death the right passes to his successor; 
(b) if there is no such direction but the copyright in 
the work in question forms part of his estate, the right passes 
to the person to whom the copyright passes; 
(c) if or to the extent the right does not pass under 
paragraph (a) or paragraph (b) it would be exercisable by the 
owners of the copyright. 
PART IV : NEIGHBOURING RIGHTS 
13. Performers shall have the exclusive right to authorise or Nature of 
prohibit the doing in Malta any of the following acts: performers' rights. 
(a) the fixation of their performances; 
(b) the direct or indirect, temporary or permanent 
reproduction by any means and in any form, in whole or in part of 
a fixation of their performances; 
(c) the rental and lending of their fixed performances; 
(d) the distribution of the original performances fixed in 
phonograms and of copies thereof; 
(e) the making available to the public of the fixation of their 
performances, by wire or wireless means, in such a way that 
members of the public may access them from a place and a time 
individually chosen by them; 
(t) the broadcasting and the communication to the public 
of their performances, except where the performance is itself 
already a broadcast performance or is made from a fixation. Tenn of protection 
for perfonners' 
rights. 
Nature of 
producers' rights. 
Tenn of protection 
for producers' 
rights. 
Nature of 
broadcasters' rights. IP/NIlIMLT/C/l 
Page 19 
14. The rights conferred by this section shall have the duration 
of fifty years from the end of the year in which the fixation of the 
perfonnance was first lawfully published or first lawfully communicated 
to the public, whichever is the earlier or in the absence of such publication 
or communication to the public from the end of the year in which it was 
first perfonned. 
15. Producers of sound recordings shall, in respect of their sound 
recordings, and producers of the first fixations of films, in respect of 
the original and copies of their films, have the exclusive right to authorize 
or prohibit: 
Ca) the direct or indirect, temporary or permanent 
reproduction by any means or fonn in whole or in part; 
Cb) the rental and lending; 
Cc) the distribution; 
Cd) the making available to the public by wire or wireless 
means in such a way that members of the public may access them 
from a place and a time individually chosen by them. 
16. The rights conferred by this section on sound recordings and 
audiovisual works shall have the duration of fifty years from the end of 
the year in which the sound recording or the first fixation of the 
audiovisual work was first lawfully published or lawfully communicated 
to the public, whichever is the earlier or in the absence of such publication 
or communication to the public from the end of the year in which the 
first fixation was made. 
17. Cl) Broadcasting organisations shall have the exclusive right 
to authorize or prohibit the doing in Malta of any of the following acts: 
Ca) the fixation of their broadcasts, whether these are 
transmitted by wire or over the air, including by cable or 
satellite, 
Cb) the direct or indirect, temporary or permanent 
reproduction by any means or form in whole or in part of 
fixations of their broadcast as set out in paragraph (a) above; 
Cc) the distribution of fixation of their broadcasts as 
set out in paragraph Ca) above; 
(d) the rebroadcasting of their broadcasts by wireless 
means as well as the communication to the public of their IPINIlIMLT/C/1 
Page 20 
broadcasts if such communication is made in places accessible 
to the public against payment of an entrance fee; 
(e) the making available to the public, of fixations of 
their broadcast as set out in (a) above, by wire or wireless 
means, in such a way that members of the public may access 
them from a place and at a time individually chosen by them. 
(2) A broadcasting organisation shall not have the right 
provided in paragraph lea) above when it merely retransmits by cable 
the broadcasts of broadcasting organisations. 
18. The rights conferred by this section on broadcasts shall have T~rm of protection 
the duration of fifty years from the end of the year in which the broadcast o.f bhroadcasters' . ng ts. 
was first transmitted whether by wire or over the air, be it by cable or 
satellite. 
19. Where a sound recording published for commercial purposes 
or a reproduction of such sound recording is used directly or indirectly 
for broadcasting by wireless means or for any communication to the 
public a single equitable remuneration shall be paid by the user to the 
performers and to the producers of the sound recording concerned to be 
shared equally between them. Such payment shall be made to a collecting 
society representing both performers and producers of sound recordings 
or, in the absence of such a collecting society, to the producer of sound 
recordings who shall be obliged to distribute half of the remuneration 
to the performers. 
20. The distribution right in respect of fixations of performances, 
sound recordings, original and copies of audiovisual works and fixations 
of broadcasts conferred by the preceding subsections of this Section on 
performers, producers of sound recordings, producers of the first 
fixations of audiovisual works and broadcasting organisations 
respectively shall be exhausted by the first sale in Malta of the originals 
or copies of such works in regard to that particular original or copy, 
when such sale is effected by the neighbouring right owner or with his 
consent. Remuneration for 
perfonners and 
producers of sound 
recordings. 
Exhaustion of 
distribution right. 
21. The provisions of paragraphs (a), (b), Ce), Cf), (g), (i), 0), (k), Ex.ception~to . 
(1) and (m) of section 9 of this Act shall apply to the neighbouring rights nelghbounng nghts. 
conferred by this Section in like manner as they apply to copyright in a 
literary, musical or artistic or audiovisual work or database. 
22. Neighbouring rights conferred by this Part shall apply only Qualification for 
neighbouring rights in respect of works - protection. Performers' rights 
to be identified and 
to prohibit the 
distortion. 
mutilation and 
modification of 
performances. IPIN!1 !MLT/CI1 
Page 21 
(a) of which the performer, the producer or broadcaster is -
(i) an individual who is a citizen of, or is domiciled or 
permanently resident in Malta or in a State in which such 
works are protected by neighbouring rights under an 
international agreement to which Malta is also a party; 
(ii) a body of persons or a commercial partnership 
constituted, established, registered and vested with legal 
personality under the laws of Malta or of a State in which 
such works are protected by neighbouring rights under an 
international agreement to which Malta is also a party; 
or 
(b) which are made, first published, broadcast or 
communicated to the public in Malta or in a State in which such 
works are protected by neighbouring rights under an international 
agreement to which Malta is also a party; 
or 
(c) which are made by or under the direction or control of 
the Government of Malta and also such governments of other 
States, international bodies or other inter-governmental 
organisations as may be prescribed. 
PART V : MORAL RIGHTS OF PERFORMERS 
23. (1) Independently of a performer's economic rights, and 
even after the transfer of those rights, the performer shall until the expiry 
of the economic rights, as regards his live aural performances or 
performances fixed in phonograms, have the right to claim to be 
identified as the performer of his performances, except where omission 
is dictated by the manner ofthe use of the performances, and to prohibit 
any distortion, mutilation or other modification of his performances 
that would be prejudicial to his reputation: 
Provided that during the lifetime of the performer it shall not be 
lawful to transmit any of the aforementioned moral rights. 
(2) On the death of the performer-
(a) the right passes to such person as he may by 
testamentary disposition specifically direct, provided that on 
this person's death the right passes to his successor; IP/N/lIMLT/CIl 
Page 22 
(b) if there is no such direction but the copyright in 
the work in question forms part of his estate, the right passes 
to the person to whom the copyright passes. 
PART VI : TRANSFER OF COPYRIGHT AND 
NEIGHBOURING RIGHTS 
24. (1) Subject to the provisions of this section, copyright and ~ssignment and 
neighbouring rights shall be transmissible by assignment or by lIcences. 
testamentary disposition as movable property. 
(2) An assignment or testamentary disposition of copyright 
or neighbouring rights may be limited so as to apply to some only of 
the acts which the owner of the copyright or neighbouring rights has 
the exclusive right to authorize or prevent, or to a part only of the period 
of the copyright or neighbouring right, or to a specified country or other 
geographical area. 
(3) When an author in relation to the original or copy of his 
work or a performer in relation to the fixation of his performance assigns 
his exclusive right to authorize or prevent the rental thereof to the 
producer of the sound recording or the producer of the audiovisual work 
containing the author's work or the performer's fixed performance, that 
author or performer shall retain the right to obtain individually or through 
a collecting society an equitable remuneration for the rental of the said 
sound recording or original or copy of the said audiovisual work from 
the producer concerned and such right may not be waived. In the absence 
of agreement on the remuneration payable under this subsection, the 
amount of such remuneration shall be determined by the Board. 
(4) Subject to the provisions of section 52 of this Act no 
assignment of copyright or neighbouring rights and no licence to do an 
act the doing of which is controlled by copyright or by neighbouring 
rights shall have effect unless it is effected by an agreement in writing 
between the parties: 
Provided that when a contract is concluded between a performer 
and a producer of audiovisual works concerning the production of an 
audiovisual work the performer shall be deemed to have assigned to the 
producer his exch.:isive rights on the fixation of his performance, unless 
agreed otherwise, subject only to the right, which may not be waived, 
ofthe performer to an equitable remuneration payable on the conclusion 
of the contract by the producer to the performer or should he so desire 
to a collecting society representing him, which remuneration shall, in 
the absence of agreement between the parties, be determined by the 
Board. IP/N/lIMLT/CIl 
Page 23 
Provided further that, when a contract is concluded between the 
author of an audiovisual work or the authors of the underlying works 
used as the basis for the £l.udiovisual work and the producer of the 
audiovisual work concerning the production of that audiovisual work 
such authors shall be deemed to have assigned to the producer their 
exclusive rights on their copyright works, unless agreed otherwise, 
subject only to the right, which may not be waived, of the authors to an 
equitable remuneration payable on the conclusion of the contract by 
the producer to the author individually or should the author so desire, to 
a collecting society representing him, which remuneration shall, in the 
absence of agreement between the parties, be determined by the Board. 
(5) An assignment or licence of copyright granted by ajoint 
author or an assignment or licence of a neighbouring right granted by a 
joint rightholder shall have effect as if granted by the other joint authors 
or joint rightholders respectively: 
Provided that, where any other joint author in the case of copyright 
or joint rightholder in the case of neighbouring rights is not satisfied 
with the terms on which such assignment or licence has been granted, 
he may, within three months from the day on which the said tenus have 
been communicated in writing to him, apply to the Board for the 
determination by it of such terms as the Board may consider fair and 
reasonable. 
(6) An assignment, licence or testamentary disposition may 
be effectively granted or made in respect of a future work or an existing 
work in which copyright or a neighbouring right does not yet subsist, 
and the prospective copyright or prospective neighbouring right in any 
such work shall be transmissible as movable property: 
Provided that in the case of copyright such assignment or licence 
shall not be deemed to include a copyright which in temlS of subsection 
(1) of Section 9 of this Act vests in the author's employers, unless the 
parties expressly include it. 
(7) A testamentary disposition of the material on which a 
work is first written or otherwise recorded shall, unless the testator has 
provided otherwise, be deemed to include any copyright or neighbouring 
right or prospective copyright or prospective neighbouring right in the 
work which is vested in the deceased. 
PART VII: SUI GENERIS RIGHT IN RESPECT OF DATABASES 
Nature of sui 25. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 7(1) of this Act, 
generis right in 
respect of databases. the maker of a database who can show that there has been qualitatively IP /NfllML T fell 
Page 24 
or quantitatively a substantial investment in either the obtaining, 
verification or presentation of the contents of the database shall have, 
irrespective of the eligibility of that database or its contents for protection 
by copyright or by other rights, the right to authorise or prohibit acts'of 
extraction or re-utilization of its contents, in whole or in substantial 
part, evaluated qualitatively or quantitatively. 
26. (1) The maker of a database which is made available to Ex.ceptiD~S t? th~ 
• • • SUI genens nght In the publIc m whatever manner may not prevent a lIcensed user of the respect of databases. 
database from extracting or re-utilizing insubstantial parts of its contents, 
evaluated qualitatively or quantitatively, for any purpose whatsoever, 
as long as the licensed user does not perform acts which conflict with 
the normal exploitation of the database or unreasonably prejudice the 
legitimate interests of the maker of the database or in any way cause 
prejudice to the holder of a copyright or neighbouring right in respect 
of the works or subject matter contained in the database and any 
contractual provisions running counter to this proviso shall be null and 
void: 
Provided that the repeated and systematic extraction or re­
utilization of insubstantial parts of the contents of the database implying 
acts which conflict with a normal exploitation of that database or which 
unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the maker of the 
database shall not be permitted. 
(2) Notwithstanding section 25, a licensed user may, without 
the authorization of the malcer of a database made available to the public 
in whatever manner, extract or re-utilize a substantial part of its contents 
for the following purposes: 
(a) extraction for private use in the case of a non­
electronic database; 
(b) extraction for the purposes of illustration for 
teaching or for scientific research to the extent justified by 
the non-commercial purpose to be achieved provided the 
source is indicated; 
(c) extraction or re-utilization for the purposes of public 
security or an administrative or judicial procedure. 
27. The right provided for in section 25 shall subsist until the Term of protection 
. . . of sui generis right end of the eXplratlOn of fifteen years from the end of the year followmg in respect of 
the date of completion of the making of the database or if made available databases. 
tothe public in whatever manner before expiry of the said period, such 
a right shall subsist until the end of the expiration of fifteen years from 
the end of the year following the date when the database was first made 
available to the public: Assignment and 
licences. 
Qualification for 
protection for sui 
generis right in 
respect of databases. IP/N/1/MLT/C/l 
Page 25 
Provided that any substantial change, evaluated qualitatively or 
quantitatively, to the contents of a database, including any substantial 
change resulting from the accumulation of successive additions, 
deletions or alterations, which would result in the database being 
considered to be a substantial new investment, evaluated qualitatively 
or quantitatively, shall give rise to the creation of a new database, which 
shall be entitled from that moment to its own term of protection of 
fifteen years. 
28. Such a right which may be assigned or granted under 
contractual licence subject to the provisions of section 24 of this Act 
shall be without prejudice to rights existing in respect of the contents of 
the database. 
29. The right conferred by this section shall only apply to a 
database -
Ca) whose maker or rightholder is at the time when the 
database is made -
Ci) an individual who is a citizen of, or is domiciled or 
permanently resident in Malta or in a State in which such a 
sui generis right in respect of databases is protected under an 
international agreement to which Malta is also a party; 
Cii) a body of persons or a commercial partnership 
constituted, established, registered and vested with legal 
personality under the laws of Malta or of a State in which 
such a sui generis right in respect of databases is protected 
under an international agreement to which Malta is also a 
party; 
or 
(b) which is made or first made available to the public in 
Malta or in a State in which such a sui generis right in respect of 
databases is protected under an international agreement to which 
Malta is also a party; 
or 
Cc) which is made by or under the direction or control of 
the Government of Malta and also such governments of other 
States, international bodies or other inter-governmental 
organisations as may be prescribed. IP/N/1/MLT/C/l 
Page 26 
30. (1) For the purposes of this section "extraction" means the Definit.ion of 
. extractIOn and pennanent or temporary transfer of all or a substantIal part of the contents re-utilization. 
of a database to another medium by any means or in any fonn while 
"re-utilization" means any form of making available to the public all or 
a substantial part of the contents of a database by the distribution of 
copies, by renting, by on-line or other forms of transmission: 
(2) Provided that public lending shall not be deemed to be 
an act of extraction or re-utilization. 
31. The first sale in Malta of a copy of a database by the 
rightholder or with his consent shall exhaust the right to control the 
resale of that copy. 
PART VIII: SUI GENERIS RIGHT IN RESPECT OF 
SEMICONDUCTOR PRODUCT TOPOGRAPHIES 
32. Creators of semiconductor product topographies and their 
successors in title shall have the exclusive right to authorize or prevent 
in Malta the reproduction of the topography and the commercial 
exploitation or the importation for the purpose of commercial 
exploitation of the topography or of a semiconductor product 
manufactured by using the topography. 
33. The right conferred by section 32 shall not prevent: 
(a) reproduction of a topography privately for non­
commercial aims; 
(b) reproduction for the purpose of analyzing, evaluating 
or teaching the concepts, processes, systems or techniques bodied 
in the topography or the topography itself; 
(c) any act in relation to a topography meeting the 
requirements of section 35 of this Act and created on the basis of 
an analysis and evaluation of another topography carried out in 
conformity with the preceding paragraph (b). 
34. When the topography or the semiconductor product has been 
put on the market in Malta by the rightholder or with his consent the 
exclusive right to authorize or prevent the commercial exploitation or 
the importation of that topography or of that semiconductor product 
shall be exhausted. Exhaustion ofresale 
right. 
Nature of sui 
generis right in 
respect of 
semiconductor 
topographies. 
Exceptions to the 
topcgraphy right. 
Exhaustion of 
topography right. Application of 
topography right 
only in respect of 
creator's own 
intellectual effort. 
Qualification for 
protection of 
topography right. 
Topographies 
created in course of 
employment. 
Where no right to 
protection exists. IP/N/1/MLT/C/1 
Page 27 
35. The right conferred by section 32 of this Act shall apply only 
in respect of semiconductor product topographies which are the result 
of the creator's own intellectual effort and are not corrunonplace in the 
semiconductor industry but shall not extend to any cpncept, process, 
system, technique or encoded information embodied in the topography: 
Provided that where the semiconductor product topography consists 
of elements that are commonplace in the semiconductor industry, it shall 
be protected only to the extent that the combination of such elements, 
taken as a whole, fulfils the above-mentioned conditions. 
36. The right confen'ed by section 32 shall apply in favour of a 
creator or his successor in title who is an individual who is a citizen of, 
or is domiciled or permanently resident in Malta or in a State in which 
such a sui generis right as is conferred by section 32 on semiconductor 
product topographies is protected under an international agreement to 
which Malta is also a party. 
37. Where a topography is created in the course of the creator's 
employment, in the execution of his duties or following the instructions 
given by his employer the exclusive right conferred by section 32 shall 
be deemed to be transfen'ed to the creator's employer or his successor 
in title, subject to any agreement between the parties excluding or 
limiting such transfer: 
Provided that the creator's employer or his successor in title must 
also satisfy the criteria of section 36 or be a body of persons or a 
commercial pminership constituted, established, registered and vested 
with legal personality under the laws of Malta or of a State in which 
such a sui generis right as is conferred by section 32 on semiconductor 
product topographies is protected under an international agreement to 
which Malta is also a party. 
38. Where no right to protection as conferred by section 32 exists 
in favour of a creator or his employer in accordance with sections 36 
and 37, the right shall apply in favour of the person or his successor in 
title, who, satisfying either of the conditions mentioned in the proviso 
to section 37, first commercially exploits, in Malta or in a State in which 
such a sui generis right as is conferred by section 32 on semiconductor 
product topographies is protected under an international agreement to 
which Malta is also a party, a topography which has not yet been 
exploited commercially anywhere in the world and has been exclusively 
authorized to exploit commercially the topography throughout such 
territory by the person entitled to dispose of it. IP/N/1/MLT/C!1 
Page 28 
39. The right conferred by section 32 may be assigned or granted Assignment and 
under contractual licence subject to the provisions of Section 24 of this licences. 
Act. 
40. The right conferred by section 32 shall subsist for ten years Tenn of protection 
from the end of the year in which the semiconductor product topography f?r~opographY 
was first commercially exploited anywhere in the world or for fifteen ng t. 
years from the first fixation or encoding of the semiconductor product 
topography if it has not been corrunercially exploited: 
Provided that in the case where the term of protection commences 
from the date of first commercial exploitation in the world rather than 
from the first fixation or encoding of the topography, the legal remedies 
provided for by subsection (1) of section 43 shall also be available in 
favour of a rightholder who can prove to the satisfaction of the Court 
that the defendant fraudulently reproduced or commercially exploited 
or imported for that purpose a semiconductor product topography even 
though such acts occurred prior to the commencement of the term of 
protection and the coming into existence of the r:gnt conferred by section 
32. 
41. Notwithstanding section 32 and the provisions of section 42, Right of 
a person or his successor in title who acquires a semiconductor product remuneration. 
shall not be prevented from commercially exploiting that product if at 
the time of acquisition he was not aware and could not reasonably be 
expected to be aware that a sui generis right as is conferred by section 
32 subsisted in that work: 
Provided that, at the suit of the rightholder or his successors in 
title, the Civil Court, First Hall, shall order that person to pay adequate 
compensation to the plaintiff in respect of the acts committed by him 
after he became aware or had reasonable grounds to believe that the 
semiconductor product is protected by such a sui generis right. 
PART IX : INFRINGEMENT 
42. (1) Copyright, neighbouring rights and sui generis rights Infringing acts. 
are infringed by any person who does or causes another person to do, 
without a licence from the owner or holder thereof, an act the doing of 
which is controlled by copyright, neighbouring rights or sui generis 
rights. 
(2) Copyright, neighbouring rights and sui generis rights 
are also infringed by any person who, without the licence of the copyright 
owner or right holder, imports into Malta otherwise than for private and 
domestic use, or distributes therein by way of trade, hire or otherwise, 
or by way of trade exhibits in public or is in possession or manufactures 
in the course of business or offers or exposes for sale or hire an article Liability for 
infringement of 
copyright. 
neighbouring rights 
and 'sui generis 
rights. IP/N/lIMLT/C/l 
Page 29 
in respect of which copyright, neighbouring rights or sui generis rights 
are infringed under the last preceding Section. 
(3) Copyright, neighbouring rights or sui generis rights are 
also infringed by any person who without the licence of the copyright 
owner or rightholder makes, imports into Malta, possesses in the course 
of trade or sells or lets for hire, or offers or exposes for sale or hire an 
article the sole intended purpose of which is to facilitate the unauthorised 
removal or circumvention of any technical device which may have been 
applied to protect a work or other subject matter eligible for copyright, 
neighbouring rights or sui generis rights under this Act against being 
copied, seen, viewed, heard or otherwise perceived. 
43. (1) Where any person infringes the copyright, neighbouring 
rights or sui generis rights in respect of a work, he shall be liable, at the 
suit of the copyright owner or right holder to be condemned by the 
Civil Court, First Hall to the payment of damages or to the payment of 
a fine to be determined in accordance with a scale of fines to be 
prescribed by the Minister, as the said Court, having regard to the 
circumstances of the case, may deem proper and to the restitution of all 
the profit deri ved from the infringement of the copyright, neighbouring 
rights or sui generis rights: 
Provided that where the defendant proves to the satisfaction of the 
Court that at the time of the infringement he was not aware and could 
not reasonably be expected to be aware that copyright, neighbouring 
rights or sui generis rights subsisted in the work to which the action 
relates, the Court shall not condemn him to the restitution of the profit. 
(2) The Civil Court, First Hall may in an action for 
infringement of copyright, neighbouring rights or sui generis rights 
having regard to all the circumstances and in particular to the flagrancy 
of the infringement and any benefit accruing to the defendant by reason 
of the infringement, award such additional damage as the justice of the 
case may require. 
(3) The COUli may, moreover, in a suit instituted under this 
Section, on the application of the plaintiff, order that all the infringing 
articles still in possession of the defendant be delivered to the plaintiff. 
(4) In an action for infringement of copyright in respect of 
the construction of a building, no prohibitory injunction or other order 
shall be made -
(a) after the construction of the building has been 
begun, so as to prevent it from being completed; or IP/N/1/MLT/C!1 
Page 30 
(b) so as to require the building, in so far as it has been 
constructed, to be demolished. 
44. (1) Saving the provisions ofthe last preceding section, any Liability for 
Person who contravenes the provision of subsection (1) of section 12, infrinlg~mhetntof mom ng s. 
shall be liable at the suit of the author or his heirs to be condemned by 
the Civil Court, First Hall, to the payment of a fine, and for damages to 
be determined in accordance with a scale of fines to be prescribed by 
the Minister. 
(2) In any proceedings under the last preceding subsection 
the Court shall order the destruction of all the infringing articles still in 
possession of the defendant where it is satisfied that the prejudice caused 
to the author is so serious as to justify such measure. 
(3) The provision of the last preceding subsection shall not 
apply where the infringing article is a building. 
(4) Any person who contravenes the provisions of 
subsection (1) and (2) of Section 12 and subsection (1) of section 23 
shall be liable at the suit of the author or the physical person to whom, 
or the legal entity to which, the right to e~'~ercise the aforesaid moral 
rights has been transmitted under the proviso to subsection (2) of section 
11, to be condemned by the Civil Court, First Hall to the payment of a 
fine, and for damages to be determined in accordance with a scale of 
fines to be prescribed by the Minister. 
PART X : THE COPYRIGHT BOARH 
45. (1) The Minister shall by notice in the Government Gazette Appointment of th~ 
appoint a Copyright Board, consisting of a chairman and two other Board. 
members for the purpose of performing the functions assigned to such 
Board by the provisions of this Act. 
(2) The Chairnlan of the said Board shall be a Magistrate 
or a person who has practised as an advocate in Malta for a period of, or 
periods amounting in the aggregate to, not less than seven years. 
(3) The Minister shall also appoint two other persons to act 
as members of the Board, one to replace the chairman and the other to 
replace any of the other two members, whenever the chainnan or any 
of the other members, as the case may be, is, for any reason, unable to 
carry out his functions. 
(4) Every member of the Board shall hold office during the 
Minister's pleasure and the Minister may, without assigning any reason, Abstention and 
challenge. 
Cap. 12. 
Power to summon. 
Proceedings. IP/N/lIMLT/C/1 
Page 31 
revoke the appointment of any member and appoint a new member 
whenever he deems it to be necessary. 
(5) The members of the Board, with the exception of the 
Chairman if he is a Magistrate, shall, before entering upon their office, 
take before the Attorney General the oath to examine and decide any 
matter referred to them with equity and impartiality. 
46. The Chairman or any other member of the Board may abstain 
or may be challenged by any of the contending parties for any of the 
causes mentioned in section 734 of the Code of Organization and Civil 
Procedure. Ani question regarding any cause of abstention or challenge 
and any question which is a question of law alone shall be decided by 
the Chairman of the Board. 
47. The Board shall have the power to summon any person to 
give evidence or to produce books or other documents before it, and the 
Chairn1an of the Board shall have, in regard to the summoning and 
examining of witnesses before the Board, the same powers as are by 
the Code of Organization and Civil Procedure conferred on the Civil 
Court, First Hall. 
48. (1) Proceedings of the Board shall be held in public and 
the Board's decision shall be notified to the parties by registered post to 
their respective business or private addresses and, unless the contrary 
is proved, such decision shall be deemed to have been served on the 
party concerned not later than the third day succeeding the day when it 
was posted to such party. 
(2) The Minister may make regulations governing 
proceedings before the Board and, without prejudice to the generality 
of the foregoing, may make regulations -
(a) prescribing the I11<tnner in which any matter may 
be referred to the Board; 
(b) prescribing the procedure to be adopted by the 
Board in dealing with any matter referred to it under this Act 
and the records to be kept by the Board; 
(c) prescribing the manner in which the Board shall 
be convened and the place where the Board shall hold its 
sittings; 
(d) prescribing a scale of fines, costs and fees; and IP/N/1/MLT/C/1 
Page 32 
( e) generally for the better carrying out of the functions 
assigned to the Board by this Act. 
49. (1) There shall lie a right of appeal from all decisions of Right of appeal. 
the Board. 
(2) Any appeal shall be brought before the Court of Appeal 
composed in the manner provided in subsection (6) of section 41 of the 
Code of Organisation and Ci vil Procedure by application within fifteen 
days of service of the Board's decision. 
(3) The Minister may make rules governing appeals to the 
Court of Appeal under this Act, and prescribing a scale of costs and 
fees in relation to such appeals. 
50. Costs and fees in respect of proceedings before the Board Costs and fees. 
and before the Court of Appeal shall be borne by the parties in such 
manner as the said Board or Court, as the case may be, shall decide. 
51. (1) In any case where it appears to the Board that a Unreasonable 
refusal or collecting society or an owner of copyright or neighbouring right -unreasonable terms 
in respect of cable 
retransmission or (a) is unreasonably refusing to grant a licence in respect rebroadcasting. 
of cable retransmission or rebroadcasting, or 
(b) is imposing unreasonable terms or conditions for 
the granting of such licence, 
the Board may direct that, as respects the doing of any act relating to a 
work with which the collecting society or the owner, as the case may 
be, is concerned, a licence shall be deemed to have been granted by the 
collecting society or by the owner at the time the act is done, provided 
the appropriate fees fixed by such Board are paid or tendered before the 
expiration of such period or periods as the Board may determine. 
(2) The Minister may by regulations order that the provisions 
of this section shall not remain in force as from the date mentioned in 
such order. 
PART XI : COLLECTIVE ADMINISTRATION OF RIGHTS 
52. Authors and other owners of copyright and of neighbouring 
rights may authorize a collecting society to administer their economic 
rights. Authorisation of 
collecting societies. 
53. (1) Collecting societies shall be established in the form of ~tablislu~ent and 
• • . lnCorporatlOn of 
Cl VII partners hI ps. collecting societies. Tasks of collecting 
societies. IP/NIlIMLT/CI 1 
Page 33 
(2) A request for incorporation of a collecting society shall 
be made at the Ministry responsible for the protection of copyright and 
neighbouring rights thereafter referred to as the "supervisory authority" 
along with the submission of a copy of the statutes of the collecting 
society and its regulations concerning the system and the amounts, as 
well as the collection and distribution, of fees and equitable 
remuneration. 
(3) The supervisory authority shall incorporate the 
collecting society unless: 
Ca) the statutes or regulations mentioned in subsection 
(2) of this section do not conform to the provisions of this 
Act or to the relevant provisions of the Civil Code; 
Cb) there is factual evidence indicating that a physical 
person who may lawfully represent the collecting society 
under the statutes of the organisation does not possess the 
professional qualifications or reliability necessary for the 
exercise of such activity; 
(c) there is factual evidence indicating that the 
collecting society is not able to fulfil its functions for any 
reason including the absence of economic and technical 
means, or of appropriate staff; 
(d) another collecting society has already been 
1pproved in the same field of administration, provided that 
the supervising authority is satisfied that the existence of more 
that one organisation in that particular field of administration 
would not be beneficial to the interests of the authors and 
other owners of copyright and of neighbouring rights and the 
users. 
(4) Any decision of the supervisory authority not to 
incorporate a coHecting society, shall be appealable by the aggrieved 
party by writ of summons before the Civil Court, First Hall. 
54. A collecting society, on behalf of, and on the basis of the 
authorisation by, the authors and other owners of copyright and of 
neighbouring rights that are its members or that it otherwise represents 
on the basis of agreements with foreign collecting societies may fulfil 
the following tasks: 
(a) to give authorization to third parties to carry out acts 
covered by the exclusive economic rights administered; IP/N/1/MLT/C/1 
Page 34 
(b) to collect fees for authorization mentioned in paragraph 
(a) and to collect equitable remuneration where the law provides 
for such remuneration; 
(c) to distribute the fees and equitable remuneration thus 
collected among the authors and other owners of copyright and of 
neighbouring rights concerned; 
(d) to take any legal action necessary for the enforcement 
of the rights administered by it; 
Ce) to carry out any other acts authorized, in keeping with 
section 24, by the authors and other owners of copyright and of 
neighbouring rights, or by the bodies representing them, whose 
exclusive economic rights or rights to equitable remuneration are 
administered. 
55. (1) Decisions about the methods and rules of collection and Metho?s of 
d· 'b' fe d . bl . d b h operation of Istn utIon 0 lees an eqmta e remuneratIOn an a out ot er aspects collecting societies. 
of collective administration shall be taken by the authors and other 
owners of copyright and of neighbouring rights whose rights are 
administered or by the bodies representing them. 
(2) The authors and other owners of copyright and of 
neighbouring rights whose rights are administered shall have the right 
to obtain full and detailed information about all the activities of the 
collecting society that concern the exercise of their rights. 
(3) Without the authorization of the authors and other owners 
of copyright and of neighbouring rights whose rights are administered 
or of the bodies representing them, no fees or equitable remuneration 
collected by a collecting society shall be used for any purposes such as 
for cultural or social purposes, or for financing promotion activities 
other than the purposes of covering the actual costs of administration of 
the rights involved and of distributing the amounts of fees or equitable 
remuneration that remain after the deduction of such costs, in keeping 
with subsection (4) of this section. 
(4) The amounts of fees and equitable remuneration 
collected by a collecting society shall, after the deduction of the actual 
costs of collective administration and other possible deductions that 
may be authorized in keeping with subsection (3) of this section, be 
distributed among the authors and other owners of copyright and of 
neighbouring rights, as much as is possible and practicable, in proportion 
to the actual use of their works. Obligations of users 
of works towards 
collecting societies. 
Supervision of 
collecting societies. IP/N/1/MLT/C/l 
Page 35 
(5) Authors and other owners of copyright and of 
neighbouring rights who or which are not nationals of, or have their 
habitual residence or their headquarters outside, Malta and whose rights 
are administered by a collecting society shall enjoy, in respect of the 
administration of their rights, the same treatment as those authors and 
other owners of copyright and of neighbouring rights who or which are 
members of, or are otherwise represented by, the collecting society and 
who or which are nationals of, or have their habitual residence or their 
headquarters in, Malta. 
(6) Foreign collecting societies shall receive regular, full 
and detailed information on all the activities of a collecting society with 
which they have concluded an agreement on the representation of the 
rights administered by them, that may concern the exercise of the rights 
of, and the distribution of fees to, the authors and other owners of 
copyright and of neighbouring rights whose rights are administered by 
such foreign collecting societies. 
56. Those who carry out acts authorized by a collecting society 
or acts for which, although authorization is not needed, equitable 
remuneration is to be paid to a collecting society, shall -
(a) facilitate the monitoring, by the representatives f the 
collecting society, of the acts authorized or for which equitable 
remuneration is to be paid; 
(b) if required, give the collecting society all information 
available to them concerning the acts perfonned in respect of the 
works concerned. 
57. (1) Any collecting society shall immediately furnish the 
supervisory authority with a copy of -
(a) any amendment to its statutes or regulations 
mentioned in subsection (2) of section 53 of this Act; 
(b) any bilateral or multilateral contract concerning the 
administration of rights of foreign authors and of their foreign 
owners of copyright and of neighbouring rights; 
(c) any resolution of the general assembly and of any 
supervisory or advisory board of the collecting society; 
(d) the yearly balance sheet, annual report and auditor's 
report concerning the operation of the collecting society. IP/N/lIMLT/C/1 
Page 36 
(2) Any collecting society shall immediately inform the 
supervisory authority of any change concerning the physical 
persons who may lawfully represent it. 
(3) The supervisory authority may at any time demand from 
any collecting society any further information that is necessary to 
determine whether or not the operation of the collecting society 
conforms to the statutes of the organisation, to the provisions of 
this Act and whether or not the appropriate fulfilment of the 
functions of the collecting society is ensured. 
58. Notwithstanding the general provisions applicable to the Dissol~tion o~ . 
d· I· f·· 1 h· d hi·· f h collecting soclelies. ISS0 utlOn 0 CIVl partners IpS un er t e re evant provlSlons 0 t e 
Civil Code-
(a) a request for dissolution of a collecting society may also 
be submitted by the supervisory authority to the Civil Court, First 
Hall; 
(b) the Court shall dissolve a collecting society if any ground 
for which the incorporation of the collecting society would have 
been denied arises, unless the circumstances giving rise to such 
grounds are remedied within a reasonable period fixed by the 
supervisory authority, or, if, despite a warning by the supervisory 
authority, the collecting society repeatedly violates its statutes, its 
regulations mentioned in subsection (2) of section 53 of this Act . 
or the provisions of this Act. 
PART XII : REGULATIONS 
59. The Minister may make regulations prescribing anything Power of the 
which may be prescribed under this Act. Minister to make regulations. 
PART XIII: TRANSITORY PROVISIONS AND REPEAL 
60. (1) This Act shall apply: 
(a) in relation to works mane arter me coming into force 
of this Act; and 
Cb) saving the provisions of subsection (2) of this 
section, to works made before the coming into force of this 
Act where the term of protection has not, upon the coming Application to 
works. 
into force of this Act, expired under the Copyright Act Cap. 196. 
repealed by section 61 of this Act. Cap. 196. 
Repeals and 
amendments. 
Cap. 196. IP/N/1/MLT/C/1 
Page 37 
(2) (a) The rights of performers in respect of a fixation of 
their performance on a phonogram to prevent the fixation of their 
unfixed performance which took place prior to the commencement 
of this Act and the reproduction of such fixation when undertaken 
without their authorisation and the rights of performers to prevent 
the broadcasting by wireless means and the communication to the 
public of their live perfonnance when undertaken without their 
authorisation shall be protected under this Act until the end of a 
period of fifty yeal"S computed from the end of the calendaT yeaT in 
which the performance took place. Provided that these rights are 
exercised through a collecting society. 
(b) The right of producers of sound recordings made 
prior to the commencement of this Act to authorize or prohibit the 
rental of the said sound recordings shall be protected under this 
Act for a term of fifty yeaTs computed from the end of the calendaT 
yeaT in which the sound recording was made. Provided that these 
rights aTe exercised through a collecting society. 
(c) The right of the holder of copyright in respect of a 
literary work consisting of a computer programme to authorise or 
prohibit the rental of the said programme shall be protected until 
the end of a period of fifty yeaTs computed from the end of the 
calendar year in which the author of the said computer programme 
dies. 
(3) No action may be taken under this Act in respect of an 
action which took place prior to the commencement of this Act in respect 
of rights recognised by this Act but which were not recognised by the 
Copyright Act repealed by section 61 of this Act. 
61. (1) Saving the provisions of section 60, the Copyright Act 
is hereby repealed. 
Act XII of 1991. (2) Section 40 of the Broadcasting Act, 1991 is hereby 
Cap. 29. 
Act IX of 1980. repealed. 
(3) Subsection (4) of section 69 of the Industrial Property 
(Protection) Ordinance is hereby repealed. 
(4) In subsection (3) of section 12 of the Statute Law 
Revision Act 1980, for the words "the proviso to subsection (1) of section 
7 of the Copyright Act" there shall be substituted the words" section 9 
of the Copyright Act, 2000". IPlNllIMLT/C/1 
Page 38 
Objects and Reasons 
The object of this Act is to make new provisions in respect of copyright, 
neighbouring rights and certain sui generis intellectual property rights in substitution 
of the provisions of the Copyright Act, Cap. 196. 