In order to strike a balance between the protection of rights for owners of creative works and increased public access to intellectual property, Singapore has ensured that its intellectual property and copyright laws are harmonised with the underlying principles in global laws on intellectual property rights (IPRs). For example, IPRs are accorded the standards of protection as prescribed by international agreements such as the World Trade Organisation's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement, and the Berne and Paris Conventions.

The Internet has extended the reach of providers of information and other forms of content, but it has also changed radically the ease to reproduce, distribute and publish such information and content. This has posed new challenges for intellectual property protection. The Copyright Act (Cap 63) was amended in August 1999 to reinforce Singapore's commitment to provide a strong and conducive IPR regime to encourage the growth of a knowledge-based economy and promote electronic commerce and creative innovations. The amendments aim to:

1. Improve copyright protection and enforcement measures for copyright owners in the digital environment, thus promoting the use of the Internet for business.
   
   For example, the amendments-
   
   a) extended copyright protection to multimedia and interactive productions which qualify as intellectual creations;
   
   b) clarified that copyright owners enjoy protection against the making of electronic and transient copies of their work; and
   
   c) provided the conditions allowing an additional avenue whereby copyright owners may require Internet Service Providers to "take down" materials which may be guilty of copyright infringement, even before the owners initiate enforcement proceedings against the actual infringes.
   
   

2. Promote legal certainty in the usage of the Internet by clarifying the rights and obligations of copyright owners, intermediaries such as network service providers, and users such as educational institutions.

   For example, the amendments allowed end users to browse materials made available on the Internet. The amendments also spelt out when intermediaries such as Internet Service Providers are exempted from liabilities.

The lead agency for IPR protection in Singapore is the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) . The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) provides support in the info-communications aspects.

The full text of the Copyright Act (Cap 63) and other statutes concerning IPR can be found at the Singapore Statutes Online Web site .

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