4.1 What is copyright law?

Intellectual property refers to anything unique that someone has created and may want to protect. Examples include written content, images, photographs, sound recordings and video.

Copyright is an Intellectual property right (IPR) protected in statute in the Myanmar under the Copyright Law (2019). Other countries have their own legal systems for protection of copyright works. The law of copyright prevents the unauthorised copying of original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic content (often referred to as ‘works’) in any medium and in any territory. Such content would include software (programs and underlying code), novels, poems, plays, films, musical works and sound recordings, drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures.

Copyright in Myanmar protects economic rights until and 50 years after the author’s death, 50 years after publication or creation of an audio-visual or cinematographic work, and 25 years after creation of applied artwork. Copyright comes into forces as soon as a work is created.

The Myanmar Copyright Law of 2019 lays out the new legislative framework for the protection of literary and artistic works and other related rights. However, it is more relaxed than many other copyright laws as the unauthorised reproduction of literary and artistic works by libraries for non-commercial purposes does not constitute copyright infringement. This allows teachers to distribute materials amongst their students. Also, use for reporting of news and current events, and reproduction for purposes of research and private study are also not infringing the law. It is noteworthy that Myanmar’s Copyright Law includes a provision allowing for a two-year transition period from the enforcement of the law, during which the distribution of unauthorised copies of protected works is permissible. This is to allow the country to prepare for complying with the law.

The Copyright Law is one of four pieces of legislation for safeguarding intellectual property in Myanmar. The others are a new Trademark Law, Industrial Designs Law, and Patent Law.

Useful resources

Myanmar Literary and Artistic Copyright Law (May 2019)

Online Burma/ Myanmar Library [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]