Public Consultation on the Proposed Amendments to the Copyright Act | Ministry of Law
The government is proposing to block all pirate sites such as piratebay. What are your thoughts? =)
Has there been any hard evidence supporting these few lines, "This adversely affects Singapore’s creative sector and the livelihoods of people working in these industries. It also undermines our reputation as an economy that respects the protection of intellectual property."
Unless they (the public people) are doing some specific research as to whether IP infringment, music or videos, do damage sales, the majority of the public probably can't answer whether it has a negative or positive impact. As far I can see, they can only speculate.
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/7-out-of-...ctive-in-online-piracy--survey-124853227.html
That doesn't mean that piracy is single-handedly burning the music industry or video industry to cinders. I am more than certain that it is a combination of reasons, like I don't know, high costs of living, housing too expensive, youtube with music videos, etc. Usually such commodities are a luxury, something that most people probably can't afford. And if they can't afford it in the first place, sales won't go up either.
I like the idea of introducing more positive things like "comprising (a) public education, (b) the promotion of legitimate digital content services", but I'll be cautious on "(c) the adoption of appropriate regulatory measures."
In any case, I find this the entire thing to be broader than just piracy, this is also internet censorship. From what I know, SG's hand in piracy is better far down the cookie jar.
Putting everything together will be like pages worth of debate, but ultimately I'm sure many youths will probably be unhappy with the internet censorship, if it goes through.
Censorship should be the last resort in my personal opinion. If (a) and (b) doesn't work out, then (c) should be considered.
By the way, if the government wants to implement "public education" ads like this again, I can foresee instant failure, and they can just skip to (c).
PS: Did you know this anti-piracy video pirated a musician's work? The musician sued and got €91000. Such irony.