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IPOS Seeks Public Feedback On Draft Copyright (Excluded Works) Order 2007 
Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 09:00 AM

The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) has published a draft Copyright (Excluded Works) Order 2007 for public consultation as of 15 March 2007. Public will have from 15 March to 14 April 2007 to review and comment on the draft 2007 Order.

2. The purpose of this public consultation exercise is to determine whether the list of excluded works stated in the draft 2007 Order should be exempted from the prohibition against circumvention of technological access control measures as applied to them. The draft 2007 Order is available for viewing and feedback at www.ipos.gov.sg, IPOS’ corporate website.

3. The Copyright Act (Cap. 63) prohibits the circumvention of technological access control measures as applied to copyright material and protected performances (Section 261C(1)(a)). For example, the act of bypassing passwords used to restrict access to copyright material is prohibited.

However, the Minister for Law may exclude specified copyright material and performances; or specified classes of copyright material and performances, from the prohibition (Section 261D(2)) and in this regard, the Copyright (Excluded Works) Order 2005 currently applies. This Order will expire on 31st October 2007.

4. Since its inception in 2001, IPOS has been providing resources for business owners who want information about the latest in Singapore’s intellectual property developments and how they can ensure their ideas are protected and exploited. For more information, please visit www.ipos.gov.sg .

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Public Consultation Exercise on
Draft Copyright (Excluded Works) Order 2007
15th March to 14th April 2007

The Copyright Act (Cap. 63) prohibits the circumvention of technological access control measures as applied to copyright material and protected performances (Section 261C(1)(a)). For example, the act of bypassing passwords used to restrict access to copyright material is prohibited.

However, the Minister for Law may exclude specified copyright material and performances; or specified classes of copyright material and performances, from the prohibition (Section 261D(2)) and in this regard, the Copyright (Excluded Works) Order 2005 currently applies. This Order will expire on 31st October 2007. Please click here [http://www.ipos.gov.sg/main/indexpage/annex%20b.pdf] for the full text of the Order.

A public consultation exercise was conducted from 15th June to 15th August 2006 which called for submissions and feedback by interested parties on:

1. whether the existing list of excluded works should continue to be exempted from the prohibition against circumvention of technological access control measures as applied to them; and
2. whether there are any other specified copyright material and performances; or specified classes of copyright material and performances, which should be exempted from the prohibition against circumvention of technological access control measures as applied to them.

Generally, feedback submitted to IPOS indicated that most of the parties were satisfied with the specified copyright material and classes of material stated in the 2005 Order. In addition, there was feedback from the education sector on rule 4(1)(b) requesting the Minister to expand the definition of “electronic locks” used to protect computer programs.

On 27th November 2006, the United States Copyright Office (“USCO”) published 6 new rules exempting non-infringing uses of specified classes of works from the effects of the anti-circumvention provisions in the US Copyright Act (17 U.S.C). The USCO anti-circumvention rulemaking may be accessed at the USCO website http://www.copyright.gov/.

Some of the rules which may benefit our education sector, industries and users here have been considered and incorporated into a draft Copyright (Excluded Works) Order 2007 (“draft 2007 Order”) prepared by IPOS.

The draft 2007 Order may be accessed here [http://www.ipos.gov.sg/main/indexpage/Annex%20a.pdf].

A comparative table showing the new rules of draft 2007 Order and the existing rules of Copyright (Excluded Works) Order 2005 may be accessed here. The differences in the rules are indicated in bold typeface and underlined.

The reasons for the new rules are as follows:

a. New Rule (e) would allow educational institutions that conduct courses in film and media to circumvent technological access control measures applied to video compact discs (VCDs) or Digital Video Discs (DVDs) to make clips for classroom teaching purposes from audiovisual works that are in their library. This will save valuable classroom time for the lecturers / tutors as they will not need to keep changing VCDs / DVDs and sifting though entire films to identify the relevant clip for the students to view.

b. New Rule (f) would address the case where certain technological access control measures applied to compact discs create or exploit security flaws or vulnerabilities in personal computers. Where this occurs, the exemption would permit circumvention solely for the purpose of good faith testing, investigating or correcting such security flaws or vulnerabilities.

c. New Rule (g) exempts the circumvention of technological access control measures applied to computer programs in situations where the key code for a computer program is lost and cannot be found after a reasonable search, the replacement key code is no longer commercially available and the user is not in breach of the licence terms relating to the key code. This exemption is narrow and must fulfill the 3 conditions before the technological access control measures can be circumvented. This addresses the problem where the key code is lost and a legitimately purchased computer program cannot be installed by the user.

In addition, the following modifications have also been incorporated into the draft 2007 Order:

a. a broadened definition of when a dongle shall be deemed as obsolete and specifically addresses the scenario where repair of the dongle is no longer commercially available; and

b. a widened rule that allows the circumvention of technological access control measures applied to ebooks (including any digital text edition made available by an institution assisting handicapped readers) that prevents the operation of the read-aloud function or prevents screen readers from converting the text into a specialized format.

IPOS has not included an exemption for the circumvention of technological access control measures applied to the firmware of mobile phones, in contrast to the US Copyright Office anti-circumvention rulemaking. Such firmware prevents customers from switching networks. IPOS understands that the telecommunications companies operating here do not currently apply such measures on the mobile phones sold here. However, IPOS would still welcome any comments the public may have on this particular issue.

The purpose of this public consultation exercise is to determine whether the list of excluded works stated in the draft 2007 Order should be exempt from the prohibition against circumvention of technological access control measures.

Please be informed that once the Copyright (Excluded Works) Order 2007 is made, it will remain in force for a period of 4 years.

Written comments from all interested parties, including representatives of copyright owners, educational institutions, libraries and archives, scholars, researchers and members of the public are invited. For each point in your written submissions, please indicate the excluded work and make reference to the specific rule that you are commenting on.

Feedback may be submitted via this link or by post to our office at 51 Bras Basah Road #04-01, Plaza by The Park, Singapore 189554 from 15th March to 14th April 2007.