Sign o' the times

I have just returned from speaking at an international forum called eNotarisation, eApostilles and Digital Evidence.

The notarization of documents is a function dating back a few centuries which facilities the production of a copy of a document without producing the original. In some instances, the notary can even attest to the execution of the document.

Around the world, many transactions require notarization, including the execution of property transactions, especially in the civil law countries. The volumes attested to by notaries amount to millions annually. This makes it an obvious candidate for executing this type of document online, by..... Read more »

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World of Internet patents lands on Singapore's shores

I have just written an alert for our clients pointing out that a Singapore company has asked for license fees for the use of what they claim is their technology--a method of locating Web pages by utilizing visual images.

According to Vuestar Technology's Web site, a license from the company is required for the clicking, scrolling or streaming over a visual image to connect with a Web site or Web page.

Such licenses are available on a per territory and per year basis. According to Vuestar,..... Read more »

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Sex, lies and video(tape)s

After the Edison Chen episode, Singapore just had to get in on some action. Videos and censorship have recently made their way to the legal headlines again.

It first started out in late-April when a group of self-styled bloggers submitted recommendations believed to include the repealing of the Films Act.

However, before anything could happen, the censors swarmed in during the screening of a political film on Lee Kuan Yew on the grounds that "it would be an offence to screen a film that has not been submitted to the Board of Film Censors (BFC) for classification and..... Read more »

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When the hunter becomes the hunted

I know this sounds like a Stephen King on Discovery channel special but it is not.

Life is sometimes funny. In the Iran-Iraq war of the early eighties, the United States leaned toward Saddam Hussein by sending then-special envoy Donald Rumsfield to meet the President in Baghdad. And in the final match of the 1988-89 season of the Football League First Division, Michael Thomas scored a last-minute goal to hand Arsenal the title above Liverpool--he was later transferred to Liverpool.

In a similar vein, last month, Singapore map company Virtual Map, provider of www.streetdirectory.com, found itself on the losing end of..... Read more »

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Keeping lawyers current

Even lawyers need help--a new initiative was launched in early January to help lawyers keep in touch with developments. Singapore Law Watch is a free "one-stop" legal news service bringing timely notifications of changes to laws and related developments. It provides readers the most current information including the latest legislative changes, new Supreme Court judgments, current legal news in the media, as well as articles and commentaries on the impact of new developments.

Lawyers are busy creatures and like most other people suffer from information-overload. So the hope is that this service will allow them to get the developments..... Read more »

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The bright exposé of Hong Kong's Edison Chen

The buzz from the region has been on Edison Chen's gift to fans around the world--a whopping collection of pictures and videos that would otherwise have never seen the light of day. Despite initial attempts to claim otherwise, it seems this is the real mccoy (the key word being "seems" because no one has admitted to this thus far) and not the work of some Photoshop protagonist.

In a recently released video, a "hurt, pained and perplexed" Chen apologized for this "strange strange ordeal". He also asked for people to destroy copies of the pictures.

However, the H.K. police had..... Read more »

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About that leak

So it seems that yet another leak of e-mail addresses has occurred in Singapore. People are fearing that spammers who get hold of such lists would have a field day.

Not so fast, though. Under Singapore's spam laws, no matter how someone gains access to e-mail address lists--whether by collecting data off coupons or asking people to provide their addresses, the only exception is the use of address-harvesting software and Internet spiders which are banned outright--you are still subject to these spam laws.

The question, though, is whether..... Read more »

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Playing copyright games

We have just read about game companies asking for boardgames Scrabble and Boggle to be taken down from Facebook, as it is deemed that such games are too close to the original version of these boardgames.

Protecting game format has also been an intriguing part of copyright, primarily because copyright famously "does not protect an idea but only the expression of the idea". So, just because you've invented a game where the winner is the person who accumulates the most points, does not give you any protectable rights.

Therefore, game designers now create games with "twists" and other visual elements..... Read more »

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Shut (down) that trap!

As this is my blog debut, I decided to start off with something of a general nature--traps. Not the kind attached to your head but traps to catch the unsuspecting.

In the recent court case of Singapore Land Authority vs Virtual Map (Singapore) Pte Ltd, SLA revealed that they had intentionally or otherwise placed numerous errors in their vector map data. These traps were in the form of phantom or ghost details--for instance, a temple was added where there was no such temple and a road extension was placed where no such extension existed. SLA lawyers said these errors constituted..... Read more »

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• The bright exposé of Hong Kong's Edison Chen
• World of Internet patents lands on Singapore's shores
• Shut (down) that trap!
• Playing copyright games
• About that leak

2008

• What's the Indian definition of privacy?
• Could technology have saved me from being touched?
• A freebie from the Internet
• Can traditional media beat new media in speed?
• SMS taxi booking is my favourite mobile service

Bryan Tan

Called to the Singapore and English Bars, Bryan Tan has practised in two of Singapore’s largest law firms and an international law firm. Bryan led many industry firsts including the first mass e-mail defamation case in the world, Singapore’s first publicised telecoms competition dispute, a pan-Asian co-branded travel portal, the first privately-funded cable landing project in Singapore and the world's first registrar-level domain name dispute. His areas of practice include information technology, telecommunications, biotechnology and bioinformatics, Chinese intellectual property, entertainment law and corporate work. He is also an author of Halsbury's Laws of Malaysia: E-Commerce. He also co-wrote the Singapore chapter of 'Digital Evidence' with Prof. Daniel Seng and is writing Halsbury's Laws of Singapore: E-Commerce.