General Questions on Copyright Act

1) What is copyright?

Copyright law in Singapore is governed by the Copyright Act ("the Act") and gives the copyright owner the exclusive right to do certain things in relation to a work, such as to reproduce the work, to publish the work or to perform the work in public. The copyright owner also has the right to prevent others from copying the work without his/her consent.

2) What does copyright protect?

Copyright protects the original expression of an idea, and not the ideas themselves. Facts and ideas cannot be copyrighted. An original work is protected as long as there is some amount of intellectual effort, labour and skill involved in its creation. For a "work" to be protected by copyright, the work must fall within one of the established categories of works, such as literary works, musical works, sound recordings or cinematograph films.The source code of computer programs are considered literary works under the Act. The graphic display and layout of computer programs and web pages are considered as compilations, which are also viewed as literary works. Copyright protection is conferred on the web page as a whole. The individual materials found on a web page may have independent copyrights attached to them.

3) What is considered an infringement of copyright?

There will be infringement of copyright if you do something with the work that only the copyright owner has the exclusive right to do. In relation to the right to make a copy of the work, there will be an infringement where a substantial part of the work is copied. There is no infringement if a person independently creates a work, even if that work turns out to be identical to another copyrighted work.It is also a violation of copyright if one for example sells or imports for sale any copyrighted work without the consent of the copyright owner.

4) Who is the owner of the copyright in a work?

Ownership of copyright to a work will belong to the author or creator of the work subject to any other agreement to the contrary. In general, the employer will own the works of an employee under the employment contract if the work was created in the course of employment. Further general information on copyright in Singapore can be found at the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore's website at www.ipos.gov.sg.