新加坡：版权（修正）案和版权法庭（修订）规章于2009年12月31日生效

   Proposed Changes to Jurisdiction and Operational Aspects

Singapore, 15 September 2009 – Senior Minister of State Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee moved the second and third readings of the Copyright (Amendment) Bill in Parliament today. The main aim of the Bill is to implement changes to the jurisdiction and procedures of the Copyright Tribunal. Please see attached speech at Annex A.

In summary, the changes will refine and clarify the powers as well as improve the operations of the Copyright Tribunal to ensure that it can effectively and expeditiously discharge its duties to hear copyright disputes in the face of continuing changes in technology and usage of copyright works.

These changes took into account feedback from a public consultation conducted by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, secretariat of the Tribunal, from February to March 2008. A total of 22 responses were received from licensing entities , government agencies, educational institutions and members of the public.

Background on the Copyright Tribunal

Established in 1987 under the Copyright Act, the Copyright Tribunal is a quasi-judicial body that hears disputes between copyright owners and users of copyright material over the reasonableness of copyright licensing terms. Since its establishment, the Tribunal has heard a total of three cases.
The Tribunal is empowered to determine the equitable remuneration that should be paid to copyright owners for certain specific uses of their works, such as the making of copies of literary works by educational institutions for teaching purposes, or the making of recordings or films of works for the purposes of broadcasting.

Key amendments to the Copyright (Amendment) Bill

The proposed key changes to the jurisdiction and operational aspects of the Copyright Tribunal are:

1. Refining the Jurisdiction of the Copyright Tribunal

The jurisdiction of the Tribunal will be refined to address the growing needs of businesses employing new technologies to exploit copyright materials.

Currently, the Tribunal is only able to review a limited range of copyright licences and licence schemes  due to the narrow definition of “licence” in the Copyright Act. For example, disputes between licensing entities and commercial users concerning the amount of licence fees payable for the reproduction of sound recordings and music videos on hard disk drives cannot be resolved by the Tribunal. 

With the proposed refinement, the Tribunal will be able to hear licence disputes relating to all types of copyright works.

In addition, the Tribunal will henceforth only oversee licensing entities which are in the business of collectively administering copyright licences for different copyright owners, such as collecting societies and commercial agencies. As such licensing entities are capable of amassing a wide repertoire of copyright works, the Tribunal can act as a check against them using their relatively strong bargaining position to impose unreasonable licensing fees and terms on licensees or businesses making use of copyright works.

Individual copyright holders, who are less likely to be able to amass such a wide repertoire that they can abuse their bargaining position, have been excluded from the purview of the Tribunal.

2. Enabling the Copyright Tribunal to substitute licence schemes

Currently, the Tribunal can vary a licence scheme, if it considers the scheme to be unfair. To ensure that the Tribunal is able to make rulings that are reasonable and fair in a broad range of circumstances, the Tribunal will be empowered to vary the terms of any licence scheme, to the extent of substituting the entire licence scheme, as deemed reasonable in each case.

3. Expansion of Composition of Copyright Tribunal

At present, the Copyright Tribunal comprises a President and up to four other members.

Under the proposed changes, the Minister for Law can appoint two Deputy Presidents, in addition to the President, to the Copyright Tribunal. The Deputy Presidents will be empowered to preside over Tribunal proceedings in place of the President. The Tribunal will also be expanded to allow the appointment of up to 15 members.

The amendments will provide a bigger pool of Tribunal members to fill the quorum  required to convene a Tribunal hearing . Multiple Tribunals may also be convened to hear different cases concurrently if the need arises.