OH MY GOD! THIS IS AWESOME NEWS!!!

[Huma Dragonbane 0]

Todays Straits Times cover story

 

 

Oct 19, 2004

Home users face fines or jail for illegal downloads

Law will be changed to make it a crime, with maximum $20,000 fine and 6 months' jail

By Chua Hian Hou

 

TOUGHER laws, including imposing a jail term, are to be introduced against home users who illegally download music, movies and computer programs from the Internet onto their computers.

 

What they do will be viewed as a criminal offence under the proposed amendment to the Copyright Act, and those found guilty can be fined up to $20,000 and/or jailed up to six months.

 

Currently, owners of the copyrighted materials have to sue such users in a civil suit and often, the fine imposed is not worth the cost of tracking and taking legal action against them.

 

The new punishments will be introduced in Parliament today and are expected to come into effect by year-end

 

The change was inevitable as it was required under the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement, said Mr Lau Kok Keng, head of intellectual property, technology, entertainment and communications practice at law firm Rajah and Tann.

 

'With Internet piracy rates going up and the ease with which such distribution can be done by individuals over the Internet, there must be a deterrent to discourage such illegal activities,' he added.

 

The latest Global Piracy Study by the Business Software Alliance, which tracks software piracy, shows fewer pirated copies of software like Windows XP and Microsoft Office, among others, being used here.

 

It has slipped to 43 per cent from 48 per cent last year. However, the real situation may be worse. 'It is difficult to uncover such illegal activities,' said Mr Lau.

 

The situation has been made worse by such file-sharing software as Kazaa and BitTorrent, which make downloading and distribution of movies, music and software much easier and faster.

 

Mr Lau is confident the change 'will close the loopholes and hopefully curb the demand for pirated content.' However, he concedes its effectiveness, not unlike Singapore's pornography laws, will have to rely substantially on tip-offs and good forensic work.

 

The tough Act to come does not seem to worry Mr B. Tan, a 28-year-old sales manager who downloads movies and music almost daily.

 

'I may cut down a bit but I don't think I would get caught. Everybody's doing it. They can't catch us all,' he said.

 

Although the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, or Ipos, had sought public feedback on the proposed changes earlier this year, the responses were not made public. Yesterday, Ipos and copyright owners such as the Record Industry Association (Singapore), the Motion Picture Association, the BSA, and the Entertainment Software Association declined to comment on the proposed amendment.

 

One area that drew flak from intellectual property lawyers yesterday was the term 'commercial scale'. A crime is committed only when the downloads are of a 'commercial scale' but the term is not defined.

 

Said Mr Cyril Chua of Alban Tay Mahtani & de Silva: 'The amendment is unsatisfactory as the term is vague and people would not know what constitutes commercial scale.'

 

Another intellectual property lawyer, who declined to be named, went further. He said: 'If the Government wants to make end-user piracy a criminal offence, it should say where this line is drawn rather than cop out with some vague 'commercial scale' definition.'

 

Mr Lau said that without clear out-of-bounds markers, 'you'll probably need to wait for the first pirate to be charged in court to see where the boundaries are.'

 

[papaya86 0]

AWESOME?! u call this awesome? anyway still can download porno over at kazza wad, no big deal. i tink singapore is tryin to lick the boots of big brother usa, by showing them we CARE alot about copyrights and dat we have a great govt dat imposes great laws.

[N@Z 0]

The last 4 paragraphs says it all. There is a need to define the TOR before imposing the new law. What I'd like to know is how far the new law will apply. Does it also affect the occaisonal d/loader who just want to sample tracks before buying a CD (the ones on the proper sites usually have crappy SQ samples).

 

It doesn't matter whether it's boot licking or otherwise, the issue is copyright. I can understand if they are targeting people who make money out of it or freeloaders who never pay for the use.

[seiko_citizen 0]

If they wanted to stop piracy, they should of arrested the end-users. it is far too late to stop piracy now! For me it is OK to d/load music,software etc etc. provided it is for personal use ONLY. Not to resell to other people for profit

[sigma 0]

It is kinda impossible to arrest each and every one, and would it be worth their effort?

 

What would they achieve? A small dent in the local piracy market?

[N3w_Typ3 0]

ya i kinda agreed with papaya86 ... there are so limited items and shows in Singapore so people like us would go or resort to use the Net to get things we wanted ... Singapore fails to understand the people needs in the Entertainment world ... haiz ...sad case.

 

Consider the music industry ... Woo SO damm limited CDs to get in Singapore ... Most of my cds now are imported ... some CDs are sold in Singapore HMV stores ... But the price is mark up by so much ... almost $20 to $30 more, i wonder how many people can afford plus the fact we had to make a trip down to get them but from NET so much cheaper and is deliever to our house door steps ( i mean buying online ) but because of all this High cost items .. people mind are .. haiz .. why not just Download can save all lot of money ( check out the price for 1 cdr ) less than 30 cents only.

 

i not too sure for Anime is being put into this subject but haiz take a good look .... how many anime is air in Japan then how MANY are Screen in Singapore TV channels ... all those stuipds shows are so often seen and they repeat repeat repeat all the same damm shows .... sad ... somemore DVDs from Japan are DAMM DAMM DAMM Expensive plus US Took them damm long to release

 

For the Software .. Woo ... consider Singapore such a so called RICH country ... you still can find people begging for money in the streets ... and how much can a person earn in Singapore ... so damm little ... Even people who finish their Uni go and be a taxi drivers ... haiz but for software buy onces in enough but this world is changing everyday every fews days new stuff is release how to catch upz

 

come on .. Singapore ... solves this problems first in hand then deal with others issues !! Why must we follow the americans ... they are too proud of themselve .. they wanted power over everything .. i Feel that Singapore should rely on THE GREAT CHINA more than usa.

 

but one thing ... things that one got from the net should limit to one use and NOT SELL them.

 

i wanna study fast and leave here !!

 

 

 

[Blues 0]

It is impossible for ALL the animes to air in Singapore for a simple reason: there's not enough audience to cover for their cost of the license. Gundam Seed might attract a large audience and it's enough for the Tv station to cover through the advertisements. But what about others? Do you think they are bold enough to risk losing money just for the sake of entertainment? That is why they only air famous or 'hot' animes. You seldom get to watch stuffs like 'Hand Maid Mai'

Even then, they're far and afew.. we're lucky channel I shows Kamen Rider Ryuki.. I don't think many watch it though

 

Anyway, I don't think people are poor to resort to leeching. More like just making excuses to get the stuffs free off the net. Come to think of it, who would want to pay when you can get just the same thing within a click away(minus the exclusive dvd casing, packaging etc). Maybe you are right that the prices for the cds and dvds can be still quite expensive to some group of people. However, there is always such a thing like second hand market and stuffs. By going the route of piracy and not supporting the original you are making the artistes and the company(including people paid to do the job like recording, publicity etc) go out of job too, in the long run. If that is the case, what is to be left of the whole entertainment industry?

 

ps. I too wonder about the case of 'sampling' the tracks on mp3 before going to buy the original cds. Worst scenario, we just have to make do with the poor bitrate on the website (if they really take actions)

Edited October 19, 2004 by Blues

[Blues 0]

I am for this idea, 'if you like it, please support the original artist.' Talents are not easy to come by. Some people work hard to achieve what they are today, yet you are potentially killing them(I am talking about music, movies industries). If this carries on to a large extent then noone wants to devote their life for the entertainment industries any longer. Kiss good-bye to all your entertainment

[Q00 0]

There are many facets to this puzzle and i have to agree with seiko citizen. I would like to see how all-encompasing that law really is. A top lawyer once said, "Its not the case itself but how the case is fought in court". Food for thought?

[N3w_Typ3 0]

Blues i did not say that all anime must be air if they are to come upz with a channel that air Anime I DON'T paying Ok as long as they don't repeat the show over and over again and are always upz to date !!... it just that i feel that the things i wanna get in Singapore are damm rare ......

not to mention to buy the original stuffs, where to get my source is only from cdjapan and amazon.co.jp... don't mention those taiwan press they are consider illegal ( for some titles are legal ) in the case of law .. but i also not too sure why they are allow to be sell in Singapore this is a major problem !!

 

and i never mention that i supported downloading !!!

 

Blues i seldom resort to downloading MP3 for my anime songs as much as i can resist or some others music artist and anime .. all i still buy over the Net even it cost a BOMB for me... as long as i can get the songs !! and DVDs

but the matter of fact i wanna see improvement is that Singapore can bring in more things in so it able to get from Singapore at a resonable price .. of cos i respect the artist work ... and i never try to get burn cds from friends as long as i can resist ... i dont mind saying i do have a few of them but sad to say i wasted those money on those burn cds as i went to search the original press.

 

If one day the downloading can be stop i would be much happy !! of cos those thing must be able to get in singapore !!

 

say bye bye to the entertainment world is hard even my console games are brought original haha ... so much money spent on all this stuffs just for me to enjoy a while ( AWHILE)

 

now i see those day i going to become poorer coming sooner!!

 

err movies i don't donwload ... the tickets to thearters are cheap in Singapore ! weekdays $8.50 wahha ....v

 

Blues .... ..... .... .....

 

O.o ya my friend had also said this before that anime are targeted for the japaness market ( even some artist don't really care how it is sell or being screen out of japan )( also one funny thing people had read that is the japaness artist prefer how those fansubber sub their work ) !.. so it pretty hard to get in Singapore and also those anime are screen in Singapore and being censored . for dunno what ever reasoN!@

 

O.o ya sorry for the unclear post before this ! Gomen !

Edited October 19, 2004 by N3w_Typ3

[N3w_Typ3 0]

There are many facets to this puzzle and i have to agree with seiko citizen. I would like to see how all-encompasing that law really is. A top lawyer once said, "Its not the case itself but how the case is fought in court". Food for thought?

 

in fact it easy to catch .. as long they have the power !! well we can see millions of people got caught

Edited October 19, 2004 by N3w_Typ3

[papaya86 0]

blues seriously, as wad they described, illegal online music sharing "killing" the artists's careers, thats pretty much bullcrap to me, these artists they dun earn by thousands, they earn by tens and hundreds of thousands. seriously speakin with or without guys ripping off their music, it only affects their pay roll, and i dare say they still earn a decent amount. im not a huge mp3 downloader and i get all my fav songs by purchasing their cds, u see the ones offered on the net/kazza/bit torrent their audio quality is really louya, with all the distortions/clippings/missing portions etc. u pay for wadeva u get. if u want the highest quality there is, go for the original source, or if u can make do with lousier quality, ripping is definately the choice. there will never be a time where everyone will turn to illegal means to get hold of audio or video content, there will always be a fair share of pple who are willing to fork out the money to get the original stuff. and mind u the maximum punishment here is 20000 bucks and 6months jail, imagine a 60 year old uncle (i've seen some reli reli tech savvy ah peks b4) go download his favourite fei yu qing mp3 off kazza and gets caught, reli bang balls man. This is seriously imo singapores act to tell the whole world, "hey we're a pretty tech savvy nation u noe, we'll go along with the rules set by the majority (which is usa). wad these recording labels are worried about is the losses incurred thru illegal downloading. the RIAA failed to put down kazza, thats why its turning its finger to the users, kazza is jus a medium for file transfer, it doesnt promote illegal sharing of music or video data. thus they have no choice but to target us users, real pathetic sight i must say.

[Blues 0]

You know there is such a thing called hmv right? and that they store quite a large collection of cds, dvds, vcds.

You complain that they are expensive? Do you know how much cost they have to cover everyday? Electricity bills, rent, wage, equipments, shelves etc and bla bla. Of course it's always convenient on our part to shop from online stores because they don't have a store to begin with, merely stocking everything in like one big house and more often than not it's like a one-man business

[papaya86 0]

and i'd rather think of music as a very special something dat does not have anything to do with money, profits and losses incurred. the music industry now is really a sad sight to see. now and then all sorts of artists and bands emerge and fade away, and wad are their real intentions? to make money. its like they are making music to earn a living instead of making music due to their passion in it. take metallica for example, look at their hay days, they pretty much rocked the scene. and after disappearing for some donkey years, they suddenly emerge with an album "st anger", and i bet they are out of cash thus resorting to rushin out a below acceptable quality album out.

[Blues 0]

Maybe I didn't make my points clear enough. If everyone has the same mentality that is to wait for each other to come up with the 'online/friendly' version of the music aka mp3s on kazaa, bittorent, then how are the original cds going to go? Already the no. of people buying originals are very low because of the high cost(talk about anime cds.. 1 full abum can cost as much as 50 bucks from japan).

Yes, talking about musician. They might not be affected adversely, but what about other people working in the industry? Surely they need to be paid too. Advertising, recording engineers, mixers, directors, everyone deserves some earning. As I've said, you might not see the big picture but by supporting piracy you are already affecting the life of the people working in that industry. Put yourself in their shoes, would you be happy to receive pay-cut due to these illegal pirates? *to put it in the mildest term*