It Has Begun - Singapore Considering Following USA's Lead With SOPA/PIPA

https://www.facebook.com/k.shanmugam.page/posts/147669282014158

by iantimothy • 15 years ago

49 27 15 years ago

iantimothy• 15 years ago

The article that the Law Minister linked to: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/vi...

fpgeek• 15 years ago

Singapore already has all of the infrastructure they need to censor whatever they want (online and offline) and they're perfectly comfortable using it. SOPA/PIPA may change what is "trendy" to censor (Singapore currently focuses on high-profile pornography, I believe, in addition to monitoring and limiting dissent, of course), but that wouldn't be a fundamental change.

Instead, what I'd say is that the example of Singapore is a reason to oppose SOPA/PIPA. Giving a government comprehensive censorship tools will inevitably chill democracy no matter what those tools are "supposed to" be used for.

gojomo4• 15 years ago

Singapore is already 'ahead' of the US in having a site-blocking mechanism:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Singapor...

One nice thing about the US political culture is that even those who want to censor things will try to spin their efforts as being something else; 'censorship' is a dirty word here, and even professional censors know it.

This isn't the same in less individualistic cultures; there it is often more broadly accepted that censorship for the 'public interest' must occur. The responsible agencies will thus speak with a frankness and pride about their censoring activities – unlike here in the USA, where the same topics only get euphemistic discussion.

Singapore has many admirable qualities but the space afforded non-traditional expression, and especially governmental criticism, is much more limited than in North America. Wikipedia has a nice summary of general cross-media censorship in Singapore...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Singapore

...and the use of domestic libel suits and other pressure to discredit or pressure news publishers occasionally gets mention in major Western papers, as with this example...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/opinion/04pubed.html

o2sd3• 15 years ago

> Singapore has many admirable qualities

Could you enumerate them? Do you (or have you) live(d) in Singapore?

curiouscats3• 15 years ago

- successful economic development (those born in rich countries seem to take richness for granted. It is very valuable to those being born the country for the country to be rich. Singapore is now rich. It was poor just 40 years ago) - safe city (probably the safest large city in the world) - nice, warm weather - great food - easiest country to set up a business in the world - good educational system - very good health results - budget surplus (they are not creating huge debt for the next few generations to deal with) - very good public housing - very good mass transit (people want it better, but it still is better than most other large, rich cities) - good parks - emerging art scene (it doesn't beat most other rich, world class cities, but is good and growing) - international crossroads, very multi-cultural city which is nice in many ways but also a good position to be in as the world moves in a similar the direction) - extremely well run government, you (or citizens...) may not like everything they are trying to do, but they are very effective at what they aim to do (something many governments are not able to do). They are willing to do very interesting things. Singapore will pay for the education of excellent students from Malaysia (as one small example - Singapore does many innovative things governmentally) - very walkable city (don't need a car - can walk and use mass transit) ...

I have lived there. I now live across strait in Malaysia. Here is my blog on Singapore

   http://singapore.curiouscatnetwork.com/

I realize Singapore also have things they could do better. But this was a list of things Singapore does well.

gojomo4• 15 years ago

I've visited twice, read a lot, and conversed with a number of people who've lived there.

I admire how productive and peaceful Singapore is, with high living standards, a diverse population, a large degree of economic freedom/opportunity, and continuing effective investment in infrastructure and education. And it got there from a somewhat chaotic and resource-constrained start as an independent country, less than 50 years ago.

From what I've read, its health-care system delivers results as well as any other highly-developed country, at much lower costs.

andycroll• 15 years ago

I live here. Have for 5 years, and my latest startup will keep me here for a good number more... success permitting!

Singapore has excellent food, weather and is incredibly safe & clean. You can eat $4 noodles or $400 dollar steak. Booze is too expensive. Public transport is cheap, comfortable and mostly efficient (until a couple of recent train breakdowns).

It's also a great base for traveling Asia.

From a startup perspective, a huge amount of emphasis (read: money) is currently being applied to regional entrepreneurs to base themselves in Singapore's low-tax, straightforward business environment.

Engineers have been slightly underpaid historically, but things are beginning to improve. Coupled with the low tax rate though... the main problem is expensive rental accommodation.

The government certainly is guilty of heavy-handed-ness in a variety of situations but in general it appears to be from a sense of egocentric paternalism ('we know best what is good for you') rather than cynical exploitation.

They currently have some issues in terms of redistributing the wealth fairly to locals. The perception is that competition for jobs amongst the lower middle class is hampered by economic migration from poorer countries in the region.

Happy to talk more... but I've gone on enough already.

jemeshsu• 15 years ago

You are so 1990s.

hanxu• 15 years ago

Note that the primary reason why the current state of copyright law in Singapore is overwhelmingly skewed in favour of the copyright cartel is due to the free trade agreement signed with the USA. They are obliged by the treaty to put in places laws which are draconian by US standards.

guard-of-terra3• 15 years ago

But why they actually do it? Why they enforce such laws (or do they?) They're net losers from doing so.

You could not force them to if they didn't want, I argue, so why they bother?

Nick_C• 15 years ago

Because the U.S. won't ratify the Treaty if they don't. Same thing happened here in Australia.

From Singapore's perspective, the FTA brings trade benefits. Presumably they judged that those outweighted the negatives.

ypcx• 15 years ago

NOTHING has begun. It's the same money pushing in other countries. It will be defeated everywhere.

viggity• 15 years ago

Please don't editorialize in the subject title. "It has begun" is unnecessary on HN

guard-of-terra3• 15 years ago

Why do they do this? I bet Singapore is a net importer of IP: I don't think they have much own music or movies or books or off-the-shelf software to care about the issue.

I can see how US would press them into protecting IP, but what's with the centuries-proven tactic of promising and then never doing anything?

caller9• 15 years ago

So they are going to cut and run once their population becomes aware of the legislation despite a traditional media blackout?

It Has Begun - Singapore Considering Following USA's Lead With SOPA/PIPA

Related Stories