CRIMINALIZING PRIMARY COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IN SINGAPORE: WHO ARE THE REAL ONLINE CULPRITS

It is axiomatic in the international copyright arena for the law to impose criminal liability on secondary acts of copyright infringement. Such acts of infringement (which may also attract civil liability) typically entail the commercial exploitation of infringing copies of copyright material by unlicensed vendors. Take, for example, the ubiquitous street vendor in Bangkok’s hugely-popular Patpong district who, on a daily basis, hawks pirated CDs and DVDs to throngs of foreign tourists. Although street scenes such as these are fairly commonplace and representative of the livelihoods of numerous other unlicensed vendors the world over, the law clearly frowns upon such practices and, for some time now, has imposed penal sanctions on these secondary infringers of copyright.1 The use of the criminal law under such circumstances to aid in the effective enforcement of intellectual property rights is understandable, because the sale of each unauthorised copy of music, film or software will, correspondingly, deprive the relevant copyright owner of the economic benefits of a legitimate transaction. Yet the fact remains that many of these so-called copyright pirates have continued to operate under the present legal environment simply because of high consumer demand; there is, after all, a sizeable global market for illegitimate products of intellectual property. The irony, of course, is this: that whilst it is a criminal offence to trade in illegitimate copies of copyright material, it is – at least under copyright law – not a crime nor an actionable civil wrong to purchase or acquire such copies for private and domestic use.2 However, in light of the rapid advancements in computer, digital and Internet technologies, consumers and other end-users have begun to take things into their own hands. Instead of purchasing illegitimate copies of copyright material from the street vendor, they now discover that it is far more efficient and cost-effective to acquire digital copies for themselves in the privacy of their own rooms from certain Internet websites or through peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks. They may further decide to share these digital copies with others in the Internet or P2P file-sharing community. In the process, however, they inadvertently expose themselves to civil action for having committed primary acts of copyright infringement, and, in Singapore at least, they may also face criminal prosecution if primary infringers like themselves are found guilty of wilful infringements of copyright. Against this backdrop, the authors will, in this paper, examine the newly introduced criminal provisions in Singapore’s copyright legislation which target primary acts of copyright infringement and will consider, in particular, the consequences of prosecuting offenders pursuant to these provisions in the context of a number of hypothetical scenarios involving acts of infringement committed on the Internet. These Internet-based scenarios are particularly relevant and timely in the present discussion in light of recent reports in the local media concerning – (1) the various measures taken by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (and other local agencies) to encourage all companies and businesses to use legal or licensed software in the conduct of their day-to-day business; as well as (2) the recent arrest and prosecution of two individuals in Singapore for allegedly distributing unauthorised music files via an Internet chat program.3 This paper therefore aims to offer an academic perspective of the various types of online activity which, in the authors’ view, will likely attract criminal liability under the new provisions (as well as those which ought not to)

Measurement of Shear Modulus Profile Using a Continuous Surface Wave Measurement System

For most ground response analyses, the shear modulus is an important parameter to be determined and it has to be measured over a large strain range, so as to characterise the soil behavior under various loading conditions. Laboratory measurement of shear modulus covers a limited strain range depending on the test method. The main difficulty lies in the determination of the shear modulus at very small strains. In this respect, geophysical methods are more attractive. One of these test methods, which uses a continuous surface wave, is used to obtain the shear modulus profile at two sites in Singapore. The Continuous Surface Wave System (CSWS) is a nonintrusive field geophysical test consisting of a vibrator source and several receiver geophones connected to a computer system. The computer collects and analyses the field data, and provides a shear modulus profile at the test site. Conclusions from the field tests support published literature that such field seismic tests are capable of measuring the low-strain shear modulus well. The interpretation of field test data in the absence of specific stratigraphic information can pose some difficulties. An important part in interpreting continuous surface wave measurement data is in the selection of a suitable inversion tool so as to derive the correct shear modulus profile for the site under consideration. A finite element approach (using LS DYNA) is investigated for inversion of field test data. Data obtained from S-wave cross-hole survey are also compared with field tests data obtained using CSWS

Modulation of Natural Killer Cell Cytotoxicity in Human Cytomegalovirus Infection: The Role of Endogenous Class I Major Histocompatibility Complex and a Viral Class I Homolog

Natural killer (NK) cells have been implicated in early immune responses against certain viruses, including cytomegalovirus (CMV). CMV causes downregulation of class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) expression in infected cells; however, it has been proposed that a class I MHC homolog encoded by CMV, UL18, may act as a surrogate ligand to prevent NK cell lysis of CMV-infected cells. In this study, we examined the role of UL18 in NK cell recognition and lysis using fibroblasts infected with either wild-type or UL18 knockout CMV virus, and by using cell lines transfected with the UL18 gene. In both systems, the expression of UL18 resulted in the enhanced killing of target cells. We also show that the enhanced killing is due to both UL18-dependent and -independent mechanisms, and that the killer cell inhibitory receptors (KIRs) and CD94/NKG2A inhibitory receptors for MHC class I do not play a role in affecting susceptibility of CMV-infected fibroblasts to NK cell–mediated cytotoxicity

An improved wrapper-based feature selection method for machinery fault diagnosis

A major issue of machinery fault diagnosis using vibration signals is that it is over-reliant on personnel knowledge and experience in interpreting the signal. Thus, machine learning has been adapted for machinery fault diagnosis. The quantity and quality of the input features, however, influence the fault classification performance. Feature selection plays a vital role in selecting the most representative feature subset for the machine learning algorithm. In contrast, the trade-off relationship between capability when selecting the best feature subset and computational effort is inevitable in the wrapper-based feature selection (WFS) method. This paper proposes an improved WFS technique before integration with a support vector machine (SVM) model classifier as a complete fault diagnosis system for a rolling element bearing case study. The bearing vibration dataset made available by the Case Western Reserve University Bearing Data Centre was executed using the proposed WFS and its performance has been analysed and discussed. The results reveal that the proposed WFS secures the best feature subset with a lower computational effort by eliminating the redundancy of re-evaluation. The proposed WFS has therefore been found to be capable and efficient to carry out feature selection tasks

Ni(OH)2 decorated rutile TiO2 for efficient removal of tetracycline from wastewater

Flower-like and coral-like particles composed of rutile TiO2 nanorods were synthesized via hydrolysis of TiCl4 in water at room temperature and hydrothermal crystallization. The subsequent deposition of Ni(OH)2 clusters resulted in enhanced adsorption property and photocatalytic activity. In particular, Ni(OH)2-modified coral-like rutile TiO2 was shown to efficiently remove 76% of tetracycline from 100 mg L−1 solution after 30 min adsorption and subsequent 2 h photodegradation under visible light; whereas only 57% tetracycline removal was achieved by the commercial TiO2 (P25). In addition, the micro-sized Ni(OH)2-modified rutile TiO2 particles could be easily recovered from water after the photocatalytic process, and showed significant advantages over nano-sized photocatalysts. Our study provides a simple and green route to synthesizing photocatalysts with enhanced adsorption and photocatalytic performance for potential applications in practical water purification and wastewater treatment

Seasonal and spatial dynamics of the primary vector of plasmodium knowlesi within a major transmission focus in Sabah, Malaysia

Background The simian malaria parasite Plasmodium knowlesi is emerging as a public health problem in Southeast Asia, particularly in Malaysian Borneo where it now accounts for the greatest burden of malaria cases and deaths. Control is hindered by limited understanding of the ecology of potential vector species. Methodology/Principal Findings We conducted a one year longitudinal study of P. knowlesi vectors in three sites within an endemic area of Sabah, Malaysia. All mosquitoes were captured using human landing catch. Anopheles mosquitoes were dissected to determine, oocyst, sporozoites and parous rate. Anopheles balabacensis is confirmed as the primary vector of. P. knowlesi (using nested PCR) in Sabah for the first time. Vector densities were significantly higher and more seasonally variable in the village than forest or small scale farming site. However An. balabacensis survival and P. knowlesi infection rates were highest in forest and small scale farm sites. Anopheles balabacensis mostly bites humans outdoors in the early evening between 1800 to 2000hrs. Conclusions/Significance This study indicates transmission is unlikely to be prevented by bednets. This combined with its high vectorial capacity poses a threat to malaria elimination programmes within the region. Author Summary The first natural infection of Plasmodium knowlesi was reported 40 years ago. At that time it was perceived that the infection would not affect humans. However, now P. knowlesi is the predominant malaria species (38% of the cases) infecting people in Malaysia and is a notable obstacle to malaria elimination in the country. Plasmodium knowlesi has also been reported from all countries in Southeast Asia with the exception of Lao PDR and Timor Leste. In Sabah, Malaysian Borneo cases of human P. knowlesi are increasing. Thus, a comprehensive understanding of the bionomics of the vectors is required so as to enable proper control strategies. Here, we conducted a longitudinal study in Kudat district, Sabah, to determine and characterize the vectors of P. knowlesi within this transmission foci. Anopheles balabacensis was the predominant mosquito in all study sites and is confirmed as vector for P. knowlesi and other simian malaria parasites. The peak biting time was in the early part of the evening between1800 to 2000. Thus, breaking the chain of transmission is an extremely challenging task for the malaria elimination programme

The upgrade of GEO600

The German / British gravitational wave detector GEO 600 is in the process of being upgraded. The upgrading process of GEO 600, called GEO-HF, will concentrate on the improvement of the sensitivity for high frequency signals and the demonstration of advanced technologies. In the years 2009 to 2011 the detector will undergo a series of upgrade steps, which are described in this paper.Comment: 9 pages, Amaldi 8 conference contributio

The influence of knowledge-based HRM practices on productivity of knowledge workers: A Study on Malaysian universities

Knowledge workers have contributed significantly to the development of nations. There are various researches that extensively recognized the positive impact of knowledge-based HRM practices on knowledge worker's productivity. While there are studies regarding knowledge-based HRM practices across different countries and industries, however, there is dearth of research regarding the impact of knowledge-based HRM practices on universities' knowledge workers. Therefore, the aim of this current study was to fill up the gap by analysing the influence of various knowledge-based HRM practices on the productivity of knowledge workers in universities. This study investigated HRM practices namely knowledge-based recruiting practices, knowledge-based training and development practices, knowledge-based performance appraisal practices and knowledge-based compensation practices on the quality and quantity of the productivity of knowledge workers. Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory, Expectancy Theory, and MacGregor's Theory X and Theory Y were used as underpinning theories to support the proposed conceptual model. Eight hypotheses were developed based on the proposed research model and standard instrument was used to obtain data. By employing non-probability sampling method, a total of 129 knowledge workers in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur participated in survey. The data were collected at one point of time across the sample population. The data obtained were assessed using SPSS and Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). Results revealed the positive and significant influence of knowledge-based recruiting practices and knowledge-based compensation practices on quality and quantity of knowledge workers' productivity. Knowledge-based training and development practices were found to have their positive and significant impact on quantity of knowledge workers' productivity but not on quality of knowledge workers' productivity. Additionally, knowledge-based performance appraisal was not found to have its positive as well as significant impact on quality and quantity of knowledge worker's productivity