The global voice for consumers La voix des Consommateurs à travers le monde La voz global para la defensa de los consumidores

Country report for Singapore for CI Regional Meeting on A2K Alvin Lim Consumers Association of Singapore, Assistant Head 19 February 2009

Summary of issues of concern to consumers in Singapore Cost and availability of learning materials and use of copyright material by libraries Most of the tertiary institutions have applied for access to online journals and information for their students. There is a limit to the amount of information they can print – 1 chapter or 10%, whichever is lesser

Summary of issues of concern to consumers in Singapore Availability of local content Limited availability as most of the content produced are for corporates Needs fulfilled by black or grey markets Software piracy is a concern as a number of Singaporeans do download software, music and movies

Singapore’s intellectual property regime – Paris Convention – Berne Convention – Madrid Protocol – Nice Agreement – Patent Cooperation Treaty – Budapest Treaty – WIPO Copyright Treaty – WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty -International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV Convention) -The Geneva Act (1999) of the Hague Agreement concerning the International Registration of Industrial Design -Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks IP conventions that Singapore has signed

Singapore’s intellectual property regime To what extent are these enforced in local law? Primarily raiding stores that sell pirated software and videos Bilateral trade agreements on IP European Free Trade Association, India, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore), United States Singapore is not listed in the US 301 Watch List

Singapore’s intellectual property regime Awareness of IP alternatives such as open source and Creative Commons licensing? There is a slow interest and push towards open source software and in the end of 2008, Singapore’s license was integrated into the Creative Commons licensing process

Other communications rights in Singapore Are blogs or monitored or censored? No Filtering of Internet access Singapore has banned 100 symbolic sites Is “net neutrality” an issue in your country? No

Other communications rights in Singapore What privacy and data protection laws exist? TrustSg and anti-spam law

Access to the Internet in Singapore Penetration of broadband, fixed-line and mobile Internet services Internet for every 100 people Broadband for every 100 people Fixed line for every 100 people Mobile for every 100 people

Access to the Internet in Singapore Laws or policies that impact on Internet access Very little as the Government concentrates more on the source rather than end user Notable deficits in infrastructure, skills or content Not much as almost every home and school is wired up. A lot of common areas are also wired up. Computer education is also taught from a primary school level.

Access to the Internet in Singapore Affordability and accessibility issues Apart from three main ISP, Singapore has a free service called

Conclusions Reasons for joining CI's Global Consumer Dialogue on A2K issues and what do consumers in Singapore most need to get out of this project - Better understanding on how to make the Internet safer in terms of online shopping - Respecting of Intellectual Property rights - Creative commons and open source

Alvin Lim Assistant Head, Consumers Association of Singapore