Copyright (Amendment) Act 2014, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act (Chapter 63 of the 2006 Revised Edition), July 2014

(1) The Singapore Paliament passed an anti-piracy amendment to the Copyright Act, which will enter into force at the end of August 2014, to allow right holders to apply directly to the courts for injunctions against Internet Service Providers to prevent users from accessing the so-called “pirate sites” without having to first establish ISPs’ liability for copyright infringement. The new bill provides copyright holders with an express lane to take down the content or block the hosting site within eight weeks, if the High Court signals a green light.

(2) The so-called “pirated sites”, known in the proposal as “flagrantly infringing online location”, are to be assessed by the courts based on certain non-exhaustive factors, including (i) whether the online location’s primary purpose is to commit or facilitate copyright infringement, (ii) whether it makes available or contains directories, indexes or categories of the “means to commit copyright infringement”, (iii) whether the owner of the location “demonstrates a disregard for copyright”, (iv) whether the location has been disabled by court orders from other countries on grounds of copyright infringement, (v) whether the location contains guides or instructions on circumventing measures to disable access to the location, and (vi) the number of visitors to the online location.

(3) The injunction is permanent, although site owners, ISPs or right holders can apply to the courts to overturn the injunction. Applicants to an existing injunction can more easily apply for another injunction or vary the original injunction in relation to the location that has assumed a different IP address or URL.