Sign a management, label or agency deal
** `What you assign you do not get back. And the clause that looks like a life sentence is often weaker than it reads, though that is a fight to have with advice, not a reason to walk away on your own.
What reaches you, and in what order
Contracts Act 1950
Act 136Section 28 makes agreements in restraint of trade void, and there is no reasonableness discretion in Malaysia; a restraint is either outside the section or it is void. The section reaches post-term restrictions, so a clause stopping you signing elsewhere for two years after the deal ends is vulnerable. It does not reach exclusivity that only operates while the deal is running: Polygram Records v Hillary Ang upheld an in-term exclusive recording covenant against a band. A post-term commission on income from deals done during the term is a payment obligation rather than a restraint, so do not assume s.28 kills it; negotiate a sunset instead. Sections 15, 16 and 20 cover coercion, undue influence and mistake if you need to set the contract aside.
Copyright Act 1987
Act 332Section 27(3) requires every assignment and every licence to be in writing, exclusive or not. Understand exactly what is assigned, for how long, and whether it reverts.
Stamp Act 1949
Act 378Stamp it. Section 52 keeps an unstamped instrument out of evidence, but the proviso to s.52(1) lets the court admit it on payment of the duty and the s.47A penalty, and s.51 lets the document be impounded and stamped mid-case. So the defect is curable even at trial; it is just expensive, embarrassing and it hands the other side a delay. Stamp within thirty days of execution and none of this arises.
Specific Relief Act 1950
Act 137Damages are often not the remedy you want. Rescission, rectification and injunctions are here, and in arts disputes what you want is usually the work back or the deal undone.
Limitation Act 1953
Act 254Six years for contract, and s.29 postpones time where the claim was concealed by fraud, which is the usual argument when royalties were never reported.
Arbitration Act 2005
Act 646An arbitration clause decides where the fight happens and whether a court must stay proceedings. Most Malaysian arts contracts point at AIAC without anyone reading it.
Industrial Relations Act 1967
Act 177If you were in truth an employee rather than a contracting artist, s.20 of the Industrial Relations Act 1967 is the route: written representations to the Director General for Industrial Relations, not to the Industrial Court, within sixty days of the dismissal. There is no wage ceiling on who counts as a workman, and this route runs throughout Malaysia.
Gig Workers Act 2025
Act 872The Gig Workers Act 2025 already names actors, film crew, singers, musicians, composers, lyricists, make-up artists, stylists, photographers and videographers in its Schedule, so those artists are covered whether or not a platform is involved. Dancers, visual artists, writers, theatre directors, stage crew and DJs are not in the Schedule, and s.110 lets the Minister add them by order. That is where ALIM should be pushing. Note too that a gig worker cannot also be an employee; the Act's definition of service agreement expressly excludes a contract of service or of employment.
Never sign an assignment where a licence would do. An assignment moves ownership; a licence lends it back on terms and ends.
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This page is published by ALIM (Art × Law Initiative Malaysia) as general legal information for Malaysia’s creative communities. It is not legal advice. It does not take your circumstances into account, and reading it does not create a solicitor-client relationship with ALIM or with anyone associated with it.
The law changes. Each Act reproduced here is the Attorney General’s Chambers’ consolidated reprint and carries the date it was consolidated to; amendments made after that date do not appear in the text, and the authoritative version of any Malaysian law is the one published in the Federal Gazette. Subsidiary legislation, state enactments and local authority by-laws may also apply to your situation and are largely outside this library.
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