Multi-pronged approach to curbing privacy: Ministry

Multi-pronged approach to curbing privacy: Ministry

In their respective letters, Dr Edmund Lam ("Tune in to copyright protection"; Tuesday) and Mr Chen Yongjie ("Lax enforcement of music copyright laws"; last Saturday) raised valid concerns.

Online piracy is an international issue. It is a continual challenge to strike a balance between curbing online piracy and ensuring that content remains accessible on the Internet, not least to spur greater creativity.

Singapore adopts a multi-pronged approach in curbing piracy. Public education remains the primary and most important approach. It has to be a sustained effort.

The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore runs the Honour Intellectual Property programme, which comprises a series of outreach initiatives such as the World IP Day celebrations, to raise awareness and promote respect for intellectual property among youth and the public.

Encouraging legitimate avenues for online content delivery is another prong in our approach to curb online piracy.

Spotify, iTunes, SingTel's AMPed Music Service and others have introduced their services in Singapore over the past two years.

We will continue to work with the industry to make more of such services available for Singaporeans.

We have also taken note of the industry's concerns that prevalent online piracy is adversely affecting Singapore's creative industries, and are exploring how to enable rights holders to protect their rights more effectively against pirate websites that blatantly infringe copyright.

We will be undertaking a public consultation soon on the proposed approach.

We remain committed to building an environment where the hard work of creators will continue to be respected, while not stifling the flow of content.

Praveen Randhawa (Ms)

Deputy Director (Corporate Communications)

Ministry of Law

 


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