The case for criminalising primary infringements of copyright – Perspectives from Singapore

• Main Author: SAW, Cheng Lim
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2010
• Subjects: Criminal Law; Criminal Procedure
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/2608; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sol_research/article/4566/viewcontent/Saw_Cheng.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Hitherto, criminal liability only attached to, inter alia, the commercial manufacture, importation, distribution and sale of infringing copies of copyright material.1 In the noncommercial context, it was also a criminal offence to distribute infringing materials that had a prejudicial impact on the copyright owner.2 The defendant therefore could not be subject to criminal prosecution for infringing acts that were not motivated by profit or that did not involve “prejudicial” distribution. Only civil liability attached to copyright infringements for what may be loosely termed “non-commercial” purposes. All this, of course, changed when the United States–Singapore Free Trade Agreement (USSFTA) was concluded in May 2003 and when the Copyright (Amendment) Act 2004 was passed to implement the obligations set out in the IP Chapter (Chapter 16) of the USSFTA. The amendments to the Singapore Copyright Act 1987 came into effect on 1 January 2005 and a new section 136(3A) was born, the effect of which will be examined in greater detail below.