ST: Home users who make one or two illegal downloads are not the target

Tough action aimed at large-scale piracy

Home users who make one or two illegal downloads are not the target
By Chua Hian Hou

STRICT new copyright laws to be introduced next year against the illegal downloading of music, movies and software are not specifically targeted at the home user, the Government stressed yesterday.

Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (Ipos) director-general Liew Woon Yin said the law will only kick in when anyone downloads any illegal digital material in significant volume, which has a high monetary value and would cause substantial financial loss to the copyright owner.

‘If you download one or two songs, it would not be rampant. Our idea is not to target the man on the street,’ said Ms Liew.

The proposed new amendments to the Copyright Act, introduced in Parliament yesterday, were designed to send a message ‘that we don’t condone rampant piracy’, she said.

She was speaking at a press conference at which Ipos released more details on what would constitute an offence when users download music, movies or software from the Internet.

‘The lack of clarity was one of the issues raised when we put the original Bill up for public feedback, so we’ve come up with more details to help clarify it,’ she said.

Lawyer Cyril Chua of Alban Tay Mahtani & de Silva said this clarification ‘gives leeway to the courts to use a common-sense approach to decide where to draw the line’.

However, this does not mean home users will be precluded from possible prosecution. A home user who commits heavy copyright infringement, for example, downloading thousands of songs, movies and software, would be ‘pushing it’ and could end up being classified as an offender, Mr Chua said.

The law does not, however, set limits on what will or will not be prosecuted.

‘A good law doesn’t allow people to work the system, which would be what happens if you set out specific parameters,’ he said.

The law does, though, set out specific penalties.

Under the amended law, users and companies guilty of illegally downloading digital material could be fined up to $20,000 and/or face a six-month jail sentence. For subsequent offences, there is a fine of up to $50,000 and/or jail up to three years.

In a related development, Ipos announced the launch of a scheme to help small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) who will be hard-pressed under the new laws to afford expensive original software.

Under the scheme, which begins today and ends on Dec 31, five major software companies – Microsoft, Adobe, Macromedia, Symantec and Autodesk – will offer SMEs discounts of up to 40 per cent on their products. Ipos is hoping to attract other software firms to the discount programme.

A survey of 250 companies conducted by Ipos and the Intellectual Property Taskforce last year found that SMEs needed help to reduce their financial burden if they were to use original software, Ms Liew said. Mr Victor Lim, the vice-president of game development studio SL Interactive, was ecstatic at the news.

‘Software isn’t cheap and buying new copies each time we hire a new employee really adds up… this is really good news for us,’ he said.

Link
Top Story: Home users who make one or two illegal downloads are not the target