SINGAPORE - The Ministry of Law (MinLaw) and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) launched a public consultation to seek feedback on the exceptions available in our Copyright Act 2021 (CA) to allow users to circumvent technological measures that control access to copyright works or protected performances, according to the official website of IPOS.

The public consultation will run for four weeks, ending on 19 May 2024. This is part of a periodic review of the exceptions in the CA, which is conducted once every four years to take into account technological developments.

Copyright Act 2021

Technological measures that control access (“access control measures”) are technologies, devices or components intended to control access to copyrighted works. They function like digital locks, and often prevent copyright infringement, for example, by preventing users from making unauthorized copies of a movie. The CA generally prohibits users from circumventing such access control measures or from selling products and services that allow others to do so.

In practice, access control measures may unintentionally restrict legitimate and non-infringing uses. For instance, an access control measure may prevent compilations of portions of films / video clips for educational uses in courses on film or media studies. Hence, in limited situations, the CA provides exceptions1 in which users are permitted to circumvent these access control measures for legitimate use of copyrighted works or protected performances. Some of these exceptions are temporary in nature (i.e. there is a specified duration for which these exceptions are valid) and these are the relevant exceptions for the purposes of this public consultation.

Public Consultation

The current temporary exceptions will expire on 31 December 2024. MinLaw and IPOS would like to seek feedback on the following:

i. Whether the existing exceptions should be retained and whether they need to be modified if so, including suggestions on modifications of these exceptions;

ii. Whether new exceptions should be introduced, for existing non-infringing uses or any new non-infringing uses resulting from the enactment of the CA.