Four-five rocks!

Date: Friday, December 19, 2008

Title: The blind get easier access to e-books.
Section: Home

Summary: New changes to the country’s copyright law will help the visually handicapped and academics in film and media studies, but also stop home users from cracking old computer programs and games. From Jan1, the visually handicapped will be allowed to crack electronic books that have their read-aloud function disabled, so they can access the book’s contents. Film and media lecturers will also be allowed to extract video clips from copy-protected movies for classroom use. They were previously forced to use the original discs to stay within the bounds of the law. Libraries will also be allowed to make copies of obsolete computer programs and video games for archiving purposes.

Reflection: In the article, the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore director-general Liew Woon Yin said the changes have been carefully crafted to balance the concerns of copyright owners and the needs of users. I agree to what he said. I think that the copyright law protects the copyright owners much more than the users in the past. These changes will benefit the needs o users. With the new law, film and media lecturers will not be restricted to use only the original discs for their lessons. These changes may upset some copyright owners as it is quite unfair for them. Therefore, it remains an infringement under Singapore’s Copyright Act for other users to circumvent copy-protection measures.

Qihui