SINGAPORE LEGISLATION

• Citation: (2000) 12 SAcLJ 248
• Published date: 01 December 2000
• Date: 01 December 2000

DIGEST OF ACTS PASSED BETWEEN SEPTEMBER 1999 AND MARCH 2000

(correct as at 1 March 2000)

Bankruptcy (Amendment) Act 1999

Act No. 37 of 1999

Long Title: An Act to amend the Bankruptcy Act (Chapter 20 of the 1996 Revised Edition) and to make related amendments to the Business Registration Act (Chapter 32 of the 1985 Revised Edition) and the Companies Act (Chapter 50 of the 1994 Revised Edition).

Passed by Parliament on: 18 August 1999

Assented to by President on: 24 August 1999

Publication date: 3 September 1999

Commencement date: 15 September 1999

Summary: The Bankruptcy Act (Cap. 20) is amended to put in place measures in support of the Technopreneurship 21 initiative and to make related amendments to the Business Registration Act (Cap. 32) and the Companies Act (Cap. 50).

Section 45 (4) is amended to extend the deadline for a bankrupt to make a proposal for voluntary arrangement from 28 days to 42 days. A new subsection (3) is inserted in section 46 to empower the Minister to regulate the fees for appointing nominees in voluntary arrangements so as to make them more accessible to debtors.

Section 95 is repealed and re-enacted and a new section 95A is inserted. The re-enacted section 95 seeks to reduce the existing 2-stage procedure to one stage for a bankrupt’s proposal for a composition or scheme of arrangement to be accepted by his creditors and to allow the special resolution for the acceptance of the proposal to be passed by the creditors by post instead of at a general meeting of creditors. The section also widens the circumstances in which a special resolution may be passed by creditors of a bankrupt. The new section 95A empowers the Official Assignee to annul a bankruptcy order by issuing a certificate of annulment where a composition or scheme of arrangement has been accepted by the creditors by a special resolution under section 95.

New section 123A empowers the Official Assignee to issue a certificate of annulment to annul a bankruptcy order where a bankrupt has paid his debts in full to his creditors, so as to expedite his discharge from bankruptcy. Section 125 (2) is amended to reduce the period of bankruptcy before the Official Assignee may issue a certificate of discharge from 5 years to 3 years. Section 157 is repealed and re-enacted to widen the scope of substituted service by making it easier for the Official Assignee to serve any summons, notice or document on interested parties.

New section 165A is inserted to provide for the composition by the Official Assignee of offences under the Act or any rules made thereunder.

Consequential amendments were made to the Business Registration Act (Cap. 32) and the Companies Act (Cap. 50). Section 22 of the Business Registration Act is repealed and re-enacted to allow the Official Assignee to be represented in any hearing of any application by an undischarged bankrupt for leave of the High Court to participate in any business and to empower the Official Assignee to give written permission to an undischarged bankrupt to participate in any business.

Section 148 of the Companies Act is repealed and re-enacted to empower the Official Assignee to give written permission to an undischarged bankrupt to act as a director of a corporation or to manage a corporation. Section 254 (2) (a) is also amended to raise the debt limit for statutory demands on companies from $2,000 to $10,000.

Related Legislation: Business Registration Act (Chapter 32 of the 1985 Revised Edition) and the Companies Act (Chapter 50 of the 1994 Revised Edition).

Copyright (Amendment) Act 1999

Act No. 38 of 1999

Long Title: An act to amend the Copyright Act (Chapter 63 of the 1988 Revised Edition).

Passed by Parliament on: 17 August 1999

Assented to by President on: 24 August 1999

Publication date: 3 September 1999

Commencement date: 15 December 1999

Summary: The Copyright Act (Cap. 63) is amended for the following main purposes:

1. (a) to address various issues arising from the use of copyright material in a digital environment;

2. (b) to give greater rights to performers in relation to performances under the Act;

3. (c) to make further amendments to the Act to give full effect to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) (1994).

Section 2 is amended to clarify that that section does not apply in relation to Part XII of the Act (Performers’ Protection).

A new subsection (2A) is inserted in section 7 to define the expression “reasonable portion” in relation to a published electronic edition of a work not divided into pages. The new definition provides a quantitative

test in relation to copying of editions of works in an electronic form under section 35 (fair dealing for purpose of research or study), section 45 (copying by libraries and archives for users), section 46 (copying by libraries or archives for other libraries or archives) and section 52 (multiple copying under statutory licence by educational institutions).

New section 7A clarifies that the expression “literary work” includes a compilation of any type of copyright material (eg. a multimedia work) which, by reason of the selection or arrangement of its contents, constitutes an intellectual creation.

Section 15 is amended to clarify that the reproduction of a work includes the making of a copy of the work that is transient or incidental to some other use of the work. Such a copy is frequently made when a work is transmitted electronically. Section 17 is repealed and re-enacted to clarify that a work is reproduced in a material form if it is stored on any medium by electronic means. The reproduction of a work in a material form is one of the rights making up the copyright in the work. Section 39 (3) is amended to extend the defence in that subsection in relation to a compilation in an electronic form, This will enable the user of a compilation such as a multimedia work to make a copy thereof without infringing copyright in the compilation if the making of the copy is an essential step in the browsing or other use of the compilation.

Section 47 (which provides for copying of unpublished works in libraries and archives for certain purposes) and section 48 (which provides for copying of works in libraries and archives for preservation and other purposes) respectively are amended by substituting or deleting technology-specific words like “microform” and “manuscript”. Section 51 is repealed and re-enacted in relation to the making of copies of a work for the purposes of a course of education. The new section provides for the applicability of the defence to the making of copies by an educational institution on a network controlled or operated by it so that persons undertaking a course of education can access the copies. This is relevant to the conduct of distance learning courses on a network by an educational institution. The new section also sets out the limits of an electronic edition of a work not divided into pages which may be copied.

Section 52 is amended to provide for the applicability of that section in relation to the making of copies by an educational institution on a network controlled or operated by an educational institution so that persons undertaking a course of education can access the copies. Subsection (2) of section 108, which provides that a person who causes a film to be seen or heard, or seen and heard, in public after the expiry of copyright in the film does not thereby infringe copyright in a work included in the film, is deleted. Section 120(1) is amended to enable the court to make a delivery up order in respect of any article predominantly used for making infringing copies of a work or subject-matter.

Section 123 is amended to provide that an exclusive licensee is also entitled to the remedy in section 120A (order for disposal of infringing copy or other object delivered up under section 120).

Section 136 is amended —

1. (a) to empower a court to order delivery up or destruction of any article which was predominantly used for making infringing copies; and

2. (b) to enable an application for a search warrant to be made to any court.

Sections 140C and 140I are amended, and new section 140IA is inserted —

1. (a) to empower an authorised officer to require a person giving a notice under section 140B to give security sufficient to pay such compensation as the court may order under section 140I or the new section 140IA;

2. (b) to empower the court to order a person giving a notice under section 140B to pay compensation if the infringement action is dismissed or discontinued; and

3. (c) to give a person aggrieved by the seizure of copies of work pursuant to a notice given under section 140B to apply to court for compensation if the person giving the notice fails to take infringement action within a specified time.

New Part IXA dealing with works or other subject-matter in electronic form is inserted. The new Part provides that a network service provider is not liable for copyright infringement in 2 situations —

1. (a) where the copying is incidental to the provision of access to users of a network (section 193B); and

2. (b) where the copying is done by the network service provider at the express or implied direction of a user of a network and in the course of carrying out a service akinned to that carried out by a telecommunication carrier (section 193C).

An example of a situation in paragraph (a) is copying in a cache system by a network service provider to enhance online delivery of copyright material on the Internet. An example of a situation in paragraph (b) is the making available of copyright material on the Internet on demand via a search service.

However, the network service provider cannot avail himself of the defence in section 193C if the copyright holder or a person authorised by him has lodged with him a complaint of infringement by way of a statutory declaration...