Although the CC Malaysia project was only launched in December 2005 and the Malaysian version of the CC licenses are slated for release in early March 2006, under the stewardship of project lead Dr. Ng Alina, the CC concept has received some welcome initial support in Malaysia. Several musicians have explained how Creative Commons licensing can assist both with the development of the local music scene and also assist musicians to embrace, for their own benefit, the sharing of music by their fans.

According to Wong Yu Ri, lead guitarist of the band Frequency Cannon:

“Creative Commons is one of the tools that local musicians can use to protect their works. But it’s just a form of licensing; how you create your music, how you market yourself, how you help create a better, more diverse scene, and how you help others will be the things that make a difference to the local music scene.”

Yu Ri also observed that fighting music piracy should take a more flexible approach than merely combating copyright violations. “I feel it’s not quite about ‘fighting piracy,’ it’s about working with it. People share music. You can’t help that. It’s like fighting a forest fire that keeps on coming and no one really wins.”

Oh, and if you are a Malaysian citizen 17 years or older, check out the CC Malaysia project team’s competition.