Please note that the ownership of the copyright of the work will belong to the creator unless stated otherwise in your agreement and contract.

For your information, the ownership of the copyright can be assigned or transferred,  if both parties are agreeable to the terms which is a private agreement or contract between the parties.

You may be liable for copyright infringement if you knowingly engage in commercial dealings with devices (such as set-top boxes (also known as “white boxes” or “grey boxes”)) or software applications or services, that have a limited or no commercially significant purpose or use besides facilitating access to copyright infringing works.

Commercial dealings in such devices include selling, offering or exposing for sale by way of trade, distributing for the purpose of trade, exhibiting in public by way of trade, or offering such services in exchange for payment.

Owning an original movie DVD or having a video on demand subscription service allows you to enjoy the movie privately in a domestic setting. Showing the video in the workplace may infringe the owner’s exclusive right to communication his work to the public.

However, you may use parts of copyright content without having to first seek consent if your use is fair. This is called the “fair use” exception.

There are 4 statutory factors that the court will consider:

1. The purpose and character of your use;
2. The nature of the work you are using;
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion of the work you are using, in relation to the whole work; and
4. The effect that your use will have on the potential market for, or value of, the work.

This is ultimately a factual assessment to be made and the court may also take into account other relevant factors.

There is no need to apply or file for registration to get copyright protection, and IPOS does not administer any process for registering copyright in Singapore. Copyright protection automatically arises if the conditions under the Copyright Act 2021 are met.

The relevant conditions are:

• The creator must have a connection with Singapore (e.g., by being a Singapore citizen or resident when creating the work, or by first publishing the work in Singapore).

• For literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works (including graphic illustrations and designs), the expression of the work must be original and in a tangible form, such as in a recording or writing. Originality simply means that there is a degree of independent effort in the creation of the work.

You may refer to the Copyright Infopack for more details on the above.

An employer is in the ideal position to take the lead in honouring intellectual property rights in the workplace. It is important to have in place measures to show respect for intellectual property such as using only original software and not copying third party content without permission.

We recommend that businesses have in place a policy on intellectual property use and to send employees for courses to learn more about intellectual property rights. The academy at IPOS International conducts various courses to learn about IP fundamentals in business [https://iposinternational.com/en/academy/enterprises-individuals ].

Newspaper articles are protected by copyright. Whether you need the consent of the copyright owner depends on what you mean by "use" of the article. 

If, in your publicity, you merely refer to the fact that the newspaper featured your company, you do not need the newspaper's permission to do so.  

If you wish to link to an online version of the feature, you should check the website's terms and conditions on use and linking before doing so.

If you intend to reproduce the newspaper feature in your publicity material, you will need the copyright owner's consent to do so.

The copyright owner may be the newspaper itself, or the feature writer, especially if he/she is a freelancer. You should start by checking with the newspaper.

Training materials, such as notes, scripts, or videos, are usually original works and therefore protected by copyright. You should always obtain permission before using (e.g., copying or recording) another person’s copyright-protected works, unless a legal exception applies. You can obtain this permission directly from the copyright owner, who may be the trainer who created the materials, or the company employing the trainer.

Generally, you need to obtain permission or a licence to use a copyright-protected work before using it.

The owner of a copyright work has the exclusive right to prohibit others from using that work, so all other persons may use that work only if:

• they obtain permission to use the work – whether directly from the copyright owner or through the relevant collective management organisation managing the relevant rights in that work;

• an exception under the Copyright Act 2021 applies (e.g., the “fair use” exception under sections 190 – 194); or

• the work is in the public domain – this happens when the copyright in the work has expired (e.g., copyright in musical works expire 70 years after the death of the author).

  
  

You may refer to the Copyright Infopack for more details on the above.

It is a permitted use of copyright works to copy these works specifically for the purpose of computational data analysis, e.g. sentiment analysis, text and data mining, and training machine learning.  

However, there are several conditions which you must comply with:
- You cannot share copies of the works with others, except for verifying the results of the computational data analysis or for collaborative research or study relating to the purpose of such analysis;
- You must not use copies of the works made for any other purpose; - You must have lawful access to the works to be copied; and
- The work from which copies are made must not itself be an infringing copy (unless the use of infringing copies is necessary for a prescribed analysis) or you did not know that the work is an infringing copy.

Indeed, copyright, like many other types of property, can be licensed by the owner to others for commercial gain.  As copyright is a private right, it is up to you and your potential licensees to negotiate the terms of the licence.

IPOS conducts complimentary IP Business Clinics for Singapore citizens, Permanent Residents and Singapore registered businesses to seek advice from a professional consultant on strategies and options for leveraging on IP assets, including licensing strategies.

You may find out more and register for a session here. 

Sound recording companies have a new right to collect licence fees for the broadcast or public performance of commercially published sound recordings.

Businesses that play recorded music in a physical venue (e.g. restaurants, hotels, retail shops) will need to obtain a licence for the public performance of the sound recordings.

This is in addition to a licence for the public performance of the underlying music (i.e. the musical composition and lyrics) in the sound recording.

However, you do not need to obtain a licence for the public performance of the sound recordings if the music is played through the radio. You may find out more on the types of licences businesses require to use copyright material at IPOS website here.

Under the Copyright Act 2021, you will by default own the copyright to the photographs taken as the photographer. However, if you are the employee of a photography studio, your employer will be the default copyright owner for all types of content created by you in the course of your employment. 

However, if any of these photographs contain images of persons such that they will be considered personal data, you must observe the obligations as to the use of such personal data under the Personal Data Protection Act.  In practice, however, many photographers have their own terms of engagement with clients.

The parties are free to negotiate and amend the terms and conditions in their own agreement, which may provide that the client owns the copyright in the photographs taken. The agreement must be is recorded in writing. If you agree that your client will own the copyright to the photographs, you will also have to negotiate for any use you intend to make of the photographs.