Copyright Act 1987, fair dealing exception for reporting of news or current events

Section 13(2)(a) excuses from the exclusive rights in section 13(1) any reproduction, communication to the public, or other controlled act done by way of fair dealing for the purposes of research, private study, criticism, review, or the reporting of news or current events, provided the title and authorship of the work are acknowledged, except that no acknowledgment is required for news or current events reported by sound recording, film, or broadcast.

Section 13(2A), added by the Copyright (Amendment) Act 2012 (Act A1420, in force 1 March 2012), directs that fairness turns on the purpose and character of the dealing (including whether it is commercial), the nature of the work, the amount and substantiality of the portion used, and the effect on the potential market for the work; the exception is not capped at a headline-length or short-extract threshold in the statute's own text, and no reported Malaysian decision applying it to a systematic news aggregator's reproduction of headlines and snippets, as distinct from a traditional press review, was located.

The Act carries no separate exclusion of the news of the day or of mere facts, and Malaysia has no press-publisher neighbouring right, compelled platform-to-publisher bargaining regime, recognised hot-news or misappropriation doctrine, or located case law on hyperlinking or framed display.