Post a set, reel or performance video
Uploading is reproduction and communication to the public, and then four separate speech regimes sit on top of it.
What reaches you, and in what order
Copyright Act 1987
Act 332A recorded set or a reel with music in it contains other people's recordings and compositions. Uploading is both reproduction and communication to the public, which is why content matching pulls sets down even when nobody complained.
Collecting societies
Licensing bodiesA licence the venue holds for the room does not travel with the video. Platform-level licensing covers some uses and not others, and never covers a full recorded set.
Communications and Multimedia Act 1998
Act 588Section 233 is the provision most often used against people who post. It reaches content that is obscene, indecent, false, menacing or grossly offensive in character, sent with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, harass, or commit an offence involving fraud or dishonesty against, any person. The Communications and Multimedia (Amendment) Act 2025 (Act A1743) took effect on 11 February 2025; it raised the maximum to a fine of RM500,000 or two years or both, but it also raised the threshold from 'offensive' to 'grossly offensive' and wrote in Explanations that say satire, parody and clearly fictional work are not 'false', that artistic or anatomical depiction of the body is not obscene or indecent, and that a good-faith statement of fact or opinion is not grossly offensive. In February 2026 the Federal Court in Government of Malaysia v Heidy Quah Gaik Li kept the words 'offensive' and 'annoy' in the section but read it down: it reaches communications intended to cause harm, and anger or discontent provoked by political or controversial expression is protected speech, not harm. The consolidated text we host predates all of this. This is the MCMC route.
Content Code
Industry codeThe Content Code is prepared by the Content Forum, which the Commission designates under s.212, and it is registered by the Commission under s.95 of the Communications and Multimedia Act. Once registered, s.98(2) makes compliance with it a defence to any prosecution, action or proceeding about a matter the code deals with, for a person who is subject to the code. Section 98(1) also says compliance is not compulsory. Day to day the Code does more work than the Act: it is the standard platforms, broadcasters and advertisers actually apply when they decide whether your work goes out.
Online Safety Act 2025
Act 866In force from 1 January 2026. Your exposure here is not a charge, it is silent removal by a platform acting on a statutory duty, and a removal is far harder to appeal than a charge is to defend.
Film Censorship Act 2002
Act 620The Film Censorship Act does not apply to what you put on the internet. Section 2(3) says the Act is not to be construed as permitting the censorship of any film transmitted over the internet or an intranet. The moment the same work moves offline, into a screening, a gallery, a festival or physical copies, Board approval becomes the gate and the Board reads 'film' widely enough to catch shorts, music videos and festival material. Online, your exposure is s.233 and the Online Safety Act, not the Board.
Personal Data Protection Act 2010
Act 709Filming the room means processing other people's personal data. Since 1 June 2025 you must notify the Commissioner of a personal data breach as soon as practicable and no later than 72 hours after it happens, and then tell the affected people within 7 days of notifying the Commissioner where the breach causes or is likely to cause them significant harm. Note the trigger: the 72 hours runs from the breach happening, not from you finding out about it, and if you miss it you have to give the Commissioner a written explanation with supporting evidence. There is no size threshold on that duty. The data protection officer duty is different: it only bites if you process the personal data of 20,000 or more people, the sensitive personal data of 10,000 or more, or your core activity is regular and systematic monitoring. Almost no individual artist will reach that.
Defamation Act 1957
Act 286What you say over the top, or in the caption, is publication. It also cuts the other way: this is your statute if someone destroys your reputation in a post.
Federal Constitution
ConstitutionArticle 10(1)(a) is the right every statute above restricts, and Article 10(2)(a) is the power they are made under. Every challenge to a takedown or a charge starts here.
Removal and prosecution are different problems with different cures. Most artists prepare for the charge that rarely comes and have no plan for the takedown that does.
Related situations
DJ a club night
You are playing other people's recordings to a paying room. Three separate licences, one venue licence, a stat…
ScenarioShoot and screen a film or documentary
Approval is the gate, a FINAS licence is the price of admission, and possession alone is an offence.…
ScenarioTake a brand deal as a creator
Advertising standards reach you personally, and the brand's terms usually take the copyright in what you made.…
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.
Please do not act, or decide not to act, on the strength of this page alone. Take advice from an advocate and solicitor on your own facts. To the extent permitted by law, ALIM and its contributors accept no liability for any loss arising from reliance on this page.
If you have a live problem, talk to us. It is free and confidential.