India, Singapore IPR cooperation likely to be signed soon

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath on Monday stated that a bilateral agreement on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) cooperation between the intellectual property offices of India and Singapore will be signed shortly. During his bilateral meeting with Lim Hng Kiang, Minister for Trade and Industry of Singapore, Nath informed that as regards the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-India FTA, considerable progress was made during the last meeting in Bali and added: "I am now hopeful that we would be able to achieve our target of announcing the conclusion of negotiations at the AEM-India consultations in August". During the interaction, Kamal Nath said that Singapore was India's fifth largest merchandise trading partner and fourth largest merchandise export market and added that India's exports to Singapore grew by 16 per cent in the year 2007-08 compared to a growth of 42 per cent in the imports from Singapore.

He further stated that Singapore ranks fourth in terms of foreign direct investment in India during the period 1991-2008 with investments of 4.7 billion dollars. The total bilateral trade during 2006-07 was 11.49 billion dollars and has increased by 25.88 per cent to 13.42 billion dollars in the year 2007-08 (upto February 2008) over the same period in 2006-07. Major items of Indian exports to Singapore were: petroleum (crude and products); other commodities; transport equipments; electronic goods and non-ferrous metals. Major items of Indian imports from Singapore were: electronic goods; petroleum (crude and products); organic chemicals; machinery (except electrical and electronic) and project goods.

The top five sectors attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows from Singapore are: petroleum and natural gas, mining, services sector, construction activities and power, whereas the top five sectors attracting technology transfer are: electrical equipments (including computer software and electronics), hotel and tourism, food processing industry, chemicals (other than fertilizer) and miscellaneous mechanical and engineering industries.

Crime, CyberSpace and the Singapore Model [International - Internet Law]

The Government of Singapore has devoted significant effort to combating computer crime. It passed legislation in 1993 and periodically amends this legislation as needed. It has created new agencies and given its law enforcement personnel greater powers in its fight against these crimes.

This has lead to both a proliferation of computer-based crime in Singapore and to efforts by the Singaporean government to combat such crime. The primary tool for law enforcement officials in Singapore is the Computer Misuse Act which was passed in 1993 and has been amended four times, as recently as 2005.Singapore has chosen to follow the model of the United Kingdom by enacting legislation that addresses computer crime and utilizing the existing Penal Code for cyber crime. Computer crime is dealt with in Singapore’s Computer Misuse Act. This law prohibits the obtaining of unauthorized access to computer material, modifying the contents of a computer, obtaining or intercepting any computer service or function, interfering with or obstructing the lawful use of a computer, impeding or preventing access to or impairing the usefulness or effectiveness of any computer program or data, or disclosing a password, access code, or other means of gaining access to a program or data.

Professor Warren Chik, a Singaporean law professor states, in a 2006 paper comparing cyber crime laws in the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore, that Singapore adopted four approaches in combating computer crime.

These are:1) Passing new legislation that creates crimes where activity warrants it;2) Imposing severe penalties as punishment and as deterrents;3) Providing law enforcement agencies with additional powers, granting them extra-territorial jurisdiction, and creating new agencies with specially trained experts to deal with this technological crimes;4) Making it a crime to abet or even to attempt to perpetrate computer crimes.The agencies created to fight computer crime in Singapore include the Computer Crimes Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department, the Computer Forensics Branch of the Singapore Police, and the Singapore Computer Emergency Response Team. The creation of these specialized units was deemed necessary as a result of the ever more sophisticated nature of the technology involved in such crimes.What is “computer crime” and what is “cyber crime”?

Computer crime involves acts that attack the functions of a computer, access to a computer or the Internet, and similar items. They might be called “cyber-trespass”. They are viewed as crimes against a computer. Examples of these crimes are hacking, denying another access to Internet usage, and sending unsolicited or virus-causing electronic mail. Cyber crime, on the other hand, is traditional crime such as fraud, theft, extortion, and the like in which the computer is used as an instrument of the crime. These acts are traditional crimes that are facilitated through the use of a computer.

How has Singapore addressed these two types of crime?In 1993, Singapore passed the Computer Misuse Act (Chapter 50A of the Singapore Statutes), which it has amended four times, as recently as 2005. This Act addresses computer crimes and provides for stiff penalties for the violation of the law. It has applied its existing Penal Code provisions for activities that are deemed cyber crime. For example, the release of a virus would fall under the jurisdiction of the Computer Misuse Act, whereas an economic crime (e.g. extortion or securities fraud) would fall under the aegis of the Penal Code.What are the penalties for conviction of computer crime in Singapore?

Most of the provisions of the Computer Misuse Act carry a maximum fine up to $10,000 Singaporean dollars and/or imprisonment up to three years for a first offense. For the second and subsequent offenses, the penalty is a fine up to $20,000 Singaporean dollars and/or imprisonment up to five years. If there was damage caused as a result of the crime, the penalty is a fine up to $50,000 and/or imprisonment up to seven years. If the crime involved a threat to Singapore’s security, or to the banking or other financial, communications, or transportation industries, or to public services including utilities, safety, police, civil defense, or medicine, the penalty is a fine up to $100,000 Singaporean dollars and/or imprisonment up to 20 years.In what other manner is Singapore fighting computer crime?Singapore has created new law enforcement agencies with specially trained personnel to keep pace with the rapid advances in technology and the resulting proliferation of computer-based crimes. It has given its police force additional powers, including extra-territorial jurisdiction to aid in their efforts at apprehending computer-based criminals.