Warning Singaporeans!

[DwArD]

I'm not sure if this have been previously posted but....oh well....I just heard from my cousin saying that in January 2005, the Singapore government will impose a new law on downloading stuffs, and their first target is bittorrent. According to information from my cousin, your ISP will be observing your internet traffic, and if you downloaded more than a few hundred megabytes a day, they will suspect you of downloading stuff illegally off the net. Due to the massive number of people downloading stuffs off the net, they'll first issue a warning to users before fining or charging them. Sadly, the government will not care whether the stuff you downloaded are licensed or not, so that's a bad news for Singapore anime fans. The news also just reported that the government will step up on their efforts to catch offenders who downloaded illegal stuffs off the net.

Oh no! How am I to survive without anime!!!!???

[Selfa]

Originally Posted by DwArD

I'm not sure if this have been previously posted but....oh well....I just heard from my cousin saying that in January 2005, the Singapore government will impose a new law on downloading stuffs, and their first target is bittorrent. According to information from my cousin, your ISP will be observing your internet traffic, and if you downloaded more than a few hundred megabytes a day, they will suspect you of downloading stuff illegally off the net. Due to the massive number of people downloading stuffs off the net, they'll first issue a warning to users before fining or charging them. Sadly, the government will not care whether the stuff you downloaded are licensed or not, so that's a bad news for Singapore anime fans. The news also just reported that the government will step up on their efforts to catch offenders who downloaded illegal stuffs off the net.

Oh no! How am I to survive without anime!!!!???

Well...Singaporeans, You know how they were like. I don think they will care the heck on what stupid new laws government has imposed..1 very good example is the Kazaa incident.. that time Singapore was severely against citizens to use kazaa; which they think its illegal even if it will get its license one day. But you see, did anyone in singapore care? Almost no one! every singaporean continued to download via kazaa p2p program even after they have been issued a fine from the authority..so this incident would probably end up as the NO.2 kaaza incident (if this incident is really going to happen..)

[???]

What kind of law is this ? Just come to canada. Download is legal

Ask your cousin where did he get that info and if its not true, squeeze his neck

[Yebyosh]

Originally Posted by Selfa

Well...Singaporeans, You know how they were like. I don think they will care the heck on what stupid new laws government has imposed..1 very good example is the Kazaa incident.. that time Singapore was severely against citizens to use kazaa; which they think its illegal even if it will get its license one day. But you see, did anyone in singapore care? Almost no one! every singaporean continued to download via kazaa p2p program even after they have been issued a fine from the authority..so this incident would probably end up as the NO.2 kaaza incident (if this incident is really going to happen..)

Well, they would not bother until one lamb sacrificed himself upon the altar in a public case. Then the well publicised smackdown will scatter them all to look around for alternate methods to get their fix.

The crucial factor remains how they are going to go round detecting and gathering evidence against these perpetrators. The so-called kazaa incident is one in which no ISP were willing to do the role of detection and evidence gathering, hence no one was actually prosecuted. An unenforced law is a useless law.

In any event, the news had announced the law ( which has already been passed in Parliament ) would be targeting corporations doing such activities ( mass download of copyrighted materials for illegal usage or profiteering ). Individuals would come into attention only if they have "thousands of such materials".

[chison]

Singaporeans ...........
enjoy the world of copyright

[Reaver4k]

That sucks... P2P is still legal in Canada

[音楽は死んだ]

Geeze poor Singaporeans, being wated and being suspected simply for the ammount downloaded

And for Canada being safe, thats not the case if the DMCA has anything to say about it
http://www.p2pforums.com/portal.php?...4579416123f060

That sucks and if you dont like it get out there and get sigs on the petition at
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition

[???]

Petitions never solve problems.

Australia is also legal.

[MwyC]

whoo...singapore
every time i read aboutu wahts going on there, im glad i came over here instead of staying there

[Ending]

Like said before: it will change nothing except, perhaps, filter out the biggest cowards that also happen to be the biggest leeches.

[Anita-chan]

wahahahahaha, shame!

yeah go UK!

[Mr_Paper]

Originally Posted by ???

What kind of law is this ? Just come to canada. Download is legal

Go read the laws first next time.

Downloading is completely, 100%, illegal in Canada as is uploading. Most idiots seem to think that the interpetation of the law which states "keeping files in a shared directory does not display intent to distribute" means that it is perfectly okay to download stuff. Illiterate morons...

Australia is also legal.

No it's not, this is yet another common misconception. -.-

Originally Posted by Reaver4k

That sucks... P2P is still legal in Canada

No, it's not!

The only download services legal in Canada are the ones where you have to pay on a per download basis.

So much ignorance...

[Ending]

Hehe, that almost looked like a mod trolling for flames.

Besides, it's not ignorance; it's just a convinient way to say: "Illegal? Do I even care?"

[Mr_Paper]

Originally Posted by Wirhe

Hehe, that almost looked like a mod trolling for flames.

Besides, it's not ignorance; it's just a convinient way to say: "Illegal? Do I even care?"

I call it ignorace out of annoyance and fact since most people, especially those making those claims, are completely ignorant to the actual reading of the law.

[anime_layer]

I'm personally not fond of news that come around several corners. If there was seriously souch a law being passed, then we would have read about it from a reliable source.
Just assuming that someone is downloading illegal material based on it's bandwith consumtion is far too less secure to hold as a reason to sue someone in a country that wants to call itself a democracy.
It's seems to me that this is one more of those modern horror stories that take advantage of people who aren't critic enough towards stuff they read on the internet.

On a side note: Download might be legal in some countries. It's here in Switzerland. What surely is illegal everywhere is uploading and thus providing intellectual property without permission to a anonymous croud. Since P2P networks are based on the fact that you also have to share this wont help.
(In Switzerland swaping copies between close friends is also legal).

[Yebyosh]

To clarify some things up from the original post about the situation in Singapore

Originally Posted by DwArD

I just heard from my cousin saying that in January 2005, the Singapore government will impose a new law...

This part is true. It is a fact that Singapore is implementing a tougher law on illegal possession of copyrighted materials. The new law only states that the penalties for illegal possession of copyrighted materials would be heavier than previously before. The means ( methods ) of obtaining the copyrighted material is irrelevant, the crime is possessing the copyrighted material without obtaining/purchasing permission from the owners of the copyright.

It also makes the illegal possession of copyrighted materials a state crime. No longer is it just a civil crime anymore. Previously, the government does not go after 'pirates'. Any investigation/arrest ( the police would do this at the behest of the civil body )/prosecution of these offenders can only be initiated by a civil body ( e.g. copyright holders, Software Business Alliance - SBA ). As the case would be a civil suit, the only penalties would be monetary compensations as damages to the affected parties ( copyright owners ).

However, with the new law, as it becomes a state crime, the government is at full powers to go after the 'pirates' if they wish. The penalties for those proven guilty now include monetary fines and/or imprisonment. The arrested offenders will then also be liable for civil suits filed by the agrieved parties.

Originally Posted by DwArD

... on downloading stuffs and their first target is bittorrent. According to information from my cousin, your ISP will be observing your internet traffic, and if you downloaded more than a few hundred megabytes a day, they will suspect you of downloading stuff illegally off the net. Due to the massive number of people downloading stuffs off the net, they'll first issue a warning to users before fining or charging them. Sadly, the government will not care whether the stuff you downloaded are licensed or not, so that's a bad news for Singapore anime fans. The news also just reported that the government will step up on their efforts to catch offenders who downloaded illegal stuffs off the net.

Now all this part is strictly hearsay, there have been no official announcements/sources that touches upon any part of this. Likely it is just some "things that your friend heard from a friend who heard from his uncle's nephew's friend's girlfriend who got a SMS from an anonymous party"

[Meow]

So if you download, you will go to prison ?

[DwArD]

Hmm....so downloading anime via bittorrent is not really counted? Better hope so....my cousin spends much more time downloading stuffs like movies and games and he's more informed about such stuffs. But seriously, I once got a warning from my ISP. That really freak me out. Luckily, that's the first and last time I got that warning.

[Meow]

Imagine that they knock at your door and COPS show off.. Your life would be ruined just because you wanna watch fansubs ? That's sucks.

HEY ! I though canada is legal to download. Mr Paper. Im canadien and there's downloading music advertizing everywhere, uncluding TV commercials ! Maybe your not from the large cities of canada.

Look at the IPod commercial on TV, They support downloads for the use ther produict.

[Reaver4k]

I remember what it said when I was Upgraded to Sympatico High Speed last month is said something along the lines of "With Unlimited Bandwidth you can download more Songs and Movie files"