This was an action by Longman Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., the plaintiff, for infringement of copyright in a textbook, which was translated from a manuscript in English to Bahasa Malaysia by three Malay translators who were commissioned by it. It was conceded by the defence that the plaintiff is a company under Malaysian laws. It is a limited company with a registered office at Wisma Damansara, Jalan Semantan, Kuala Lumpur, and carries on the business of publishers of literary works of both foreign and local authorship.

In this case the plaintiff in its statement of claim averred that it is the sole owner of the copyright and rights in the nature of copyright in a book entitled "Kursus Ulangkaji Rampaian Sains" (P.1). According to its first witness, Madam Koay Gaik Kooi (P.W.1) who is its publishing director now and was its publisher in the year 1979, she had a few editors working under her and coordinated their work. She told the court that the plaintiff first published P.1 in 1979. It is a book of general science for students preparing for the S.P.M. examination and contains three subjects, namely, chemistry, physics and biology. The manuscript of P.1 was presented to the plaintiff in the English language and the authors of the English manuscript were See Tho Weng Fong, John May and J.G.R. Ricks. They jointly wrote the three sections of the book.

After obtaining advice as to who were suitable translators, the plaintiff commissioned Puan Zaleha Raub to translate the biology section. P.W.1 produced a copy of a letter appointing her (P.2) and Puan Zaleha after her appointment translated chapters 1, 4, 7, 10 and 23 of P.1. She was paid a fee of $850/- for the translation, and P.W.1 also produced her acknowledgement of the fees paid (P.3), and also a statement signed by Puan Zaleha stating that the copyright of her translation became the property of the plaintiff (P.4). One Encik Ahmad Buyong translated the chemistry section and documents relating to his appointment, acknowledgement of payment of fees and statement agreeing that the copyright of his translation belongs to the plaintiff were also produced (P.5, P.6 and P.7). The physics section was translated by Encik Jalal bin Mohd Nor, and again copies of his appointment letter, acknowledgement of payment of fees and signature on a statement agreeing that the copyright of his translation belongs to the plaintiff were produced (P.8, P.9 and P.10).

According to P.W.1 the Bahasa Malaysia version was first published in 1979, and the reprint edition was published in 1980 or closer to 1979. Since 1979 the plaintiff has not assigned the copyright of P.1 to anyone nor has a licence been granted by the plaintiff to anyone to publish or reproduce it.

Under cross-examination, P.W.1 confirmed that the three translators were not employees of the plaintiff but were only employees for piece-work. The aim was to employ them to translate the manuscripts as accurately as possible as the authors of P.1 were not competent in Bahasa Malaysia. The amount of fees paid to them depended on the amount of work done, i.e. according to the number of words translated and the biology section was the longest. In answer to a question by the court, the witness said that 50,000 copies of the first edition of P.1 were sold very quickly but sale of the reprint was badly affected and that was why it was decided not to publish further editions.

The second witness for the plaintiff was Chua Hong Koon (P.W.2). He said that he was employed by the plaintiff as an editor. He is an editor for mathematics and science, and when shown P.1 confirmed that he edited ten of the fifteen chapters whilst the other chapters were edited by his senior editor, the late Baharuddin Ahmad. This witness also identified a copy of "Kursus Lengkap Peperiksaan SPM Rampaian Sains" (D.11). He said that the publisher of D.11 was Pustaka Delta Pelajaran Sdn. Bhd. (the defendant) and the first edition was made available in 1980. Another copy