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.

Copyright protects works like novels, computer programs, plays, sheet music, and paintings. Generally, the author of a copyrighted work has the right to reproduce, publish, perform, communicate, and adapt his work. These exclusive rights form the bundle of rights that we call copyright and enable the owner to control the commercial exploitation of his work.

Copyright protects the expression of ideas (e.g. words and illustrations). Ideas alone are not protected.

The following may be protected under copyright law:

•Literary works (e.g., written works, source codes of computer programs)

•Dramatic works (e.g.,. scripts for films and dramas)

•Musical works (e.g., melodies)

•Artistic works (e.g., paintings, photographs)

•Published editions of the above works

•Sound recordings

•Films

•Television and radio broadcasts

•Cable programmes

•Performances

There is no need to file for registration to get copyright protection. An author automatically enjoys copyright protection as soon as he creates and expresses his original work 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.

A copyright work created by a Singapore citizen or resident is protected in many countries overseas by virtue of international agreements. Generally, under these international agreements, the work of a Singapore citizen or resident would be protected in countries that signed the agreements as though the work was made there.

In practice, authors have resorted to a number of ways to preserve their interests. They may have:

•Deposited a copy of their work with their lawyers or in a depository

•Sent a copy of their work to themselves by post leaving the envelope unopened so that the date stamp and the unopened work could establish the date of the work’s existence

•Made a declaration before a Commissioner of Oaths stating the facts of ownership and the date of creation

However, these are by no means fool proof methods of proving authorship as they do not prove that the work is original or created by the author. In a dispute, the Court will decide whether there is sufficient evidence to prove the authorship.

In practice, the © symbol is usually followed by the year when copies of the work were first made available and the name of the copyright owner. Sometimes there may also be a statement indicating the terms of permitted use. In cases where owners only allow for very limited use, the term “All Rights Reserved” may be found after the symbol.

Attached is the link to the copyright infopack for your easy reference.

IPOS | Copyright Resources

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.

a. The original training materials are protected by copyright. Your use of the training materials which includes the reproduction and distribution of the materials depends on what was agreed between your company and the vendor on the use of the ownership of copyright in the training materials and use of the materials. If there was no agreement on this issue, the default position is that the vendor, although commissioned by you, owns the copyright to the training materials.

You should therefore seek permission to reproduce the distribute the training materials.

b. Further, the trainer may deliver the training based on a prepared script, which is also protected by copyright. Video-recordings of such training are considered to reproduce the underlying literary work. Hence, when in doubt, you should check with the company whether video-recording is allowed and for what purposes.

a. You can use these images and clipart in your proposal if permitted by the terms and conditions of use. Look for these terms and conditions on the website and in the software agreement that comes with the software. Copyright in images and clipart includes the right to make copies, such as when you electronically include them in your proposal. Making copies without the copyright owner's permission will infringe his copyright, so make sure your use is covered by the terms and conditions, or otherwise with the copyright owner's consent.

b. Similarly, newspaper/magazine/journal articles are also protected by copyright. You need the copyright owners' consent to make copies before annexing them to your proposal, unless the use falls within the “fair use” exception under sections 190 – 194 of the Copyright Act . “Fair use” includes situations of news reporting and criticisms or review. For such uses, you will need to make a sufficient acknowledgement of the work used.

On the other hand, you can annex the actual articles, as clipped from the newspaper/magazine/journal, to your proposal without making copies.

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.

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.