# Copyright Act 1987 (Singapore)/Part VI

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PART VI COMPULSORY LICENCES FOR TRANSLATION AND REPRODUCTION OF CERTAIN WORKS
Interpretation
143. In this Part—
    “qualified person” means—
       (a) a citizen of Singapore, or an individual resident in Singapore; or
       (b) a body corporate incorporated under any written law in Singapore;
    “research” shall not include industrial research, or research carried out by bodies corporate (not being bodies corporate owned or controlled by the Government), companies, associations or bodies of persons carrying on any business;
    “purposes of teaching, research or scholarship” includes—
       (a) purposes of instructional activity at all levels in educational institutions; and
       (b) purposes of all types of organised educational activity.
​Licence to produce and publish translations
144.—(1) Any qualified person may apply to the Copyright Tribunal for a licence to produce and publish a translation of a literary or dramatic work which has been published in printed or analogous forms of reproduction in any of the official languages in use in Singapore for the purposes of teaching, scholarship or research.
(2) An application under this section shall be made in such form as may be prescribed and shall state the proposed retail price of a copy of the translation of the work.
(3) Every applicant for a licence under this section shall, along with his application, deposit with the Copyright Tribunal such fee as may be prescribed.
(4) Where an application is made to the Copyright Tribunal under this section, it may, after holding such inquiry as may be prescribed, grant to the applicant a licence, not being an exclusive licence, to produce and publish a translation of the work in the language mentioned in the application subject to the condition—
    (a) that the applicant shall pay to the owner of the copyright in the work royalties in respect of copies of the translation of the work sold to the public, calculated at such rate as the Copyright Tribunal may, in the circumstances of each case, determine in the prescribed manner, except that the royalties shall be consistent with the standards normally operating in the case of licences freely negotiated between persons in Singapore and owners of translation rights in the country of the owner of the right of translation; and
    (b) that the licence shall not extend to the export of copies of the translation of the work outside Singapore and every copy of such translation shall contain a notice in the language of such translation that the copy is available for distribution only in Singapore.
(5) Subsection (4) shall not apply to the export by the Government or any authority under the Government of copies of such translation in a language other than English to any country if—
    (a) such copies are sent to citizens of Singapore residing outside Singapore or to any association of such citizens outside Singapore; or
    (b) such copies are meant to be used for purposes of teaching, scholarship or research and not for any commercial purpose,
and in either case, the government of the country to which the copies are exported has agreed to the receipt or distribution, or both, of the copies exported to that country.
(6) No licence shall be granted by the Copyright Tribunal under this section until the expiration of whichever the following periods is applicable:
    (a) one year from the date of first publication of the work where the application is for a licence for translation into any of the official languages of Singapore other than English;
    (b) three years from the date of first publication of the work where the application is for a licence for translation into English.
(7) No licence shall be granted by the Copyright Tribunal unless—
    (a) the Tribunal is satisfied that no translation of the work into the language in question has been published in printed or analogous forms of reproduction, by or with the authorisation of the owner of the right of translation, or that all previous editions in that language are out of print;
    (b) the applicant has proved to the satisfaction of the Tribunal that he had requested and had been denied authorisation by the owner of the copyright to produce and publish such translation, or that he was, after due diligence on his part, unable to find such owner;
    (c) where the applicant was, after due diligence on his part, unable to find the owner of the copyright, he had sent a copy of his request for such authorisation by registered air-mail post to the publisher whose name appears from the work, not less than two months before the application for the licence;
    (d) the applicant had at the time he submitted an application under this section informed any national or international information centre designated for this purpose by the government of the country in which the publisher of the work to be translated is believed to have his principal place of business;
    (e) the Tribunal is satisfied that the applicant is competent to produce and publish a correct translation of the work and possesses the means to pay to the owner of the copyright the royalties payable to him under this section;
    (f) a period of 6 months in the case of an application for a licence for translation into English or 9 months in the case of an application for a licence for translation into any of the official languages of Singapore other than English, has elapsed from the date of making the request under paragraph (b), or where a copy of the request has been sent under paragraph (c) from the date of sending of such copy, and the translation of the work in the language mentioned in the application has not been published by the owner of the copyright in the work or any person authorised by him within the said period of 6 months or 9 months, as the case may be;
    (g) the name of the author and the title of the particular edition of the work proposed to be translated are printed on all the copies of the translation;
    (h) if the work is composed mainly of illustrations, the provisions of section 145 are also complied with;
    (i) the author has not withdrawn from circulation copies of the work; and
    (j) an opportunity of being heard is given, wherever practicable, to the owner of the copyright in the work.
Licence to reproduce and publish works for certain purposes
145.—(1) Where, after the expiration of the relevant period from the date of the first publication of an edition of a literary, scientific or artistic work,—
    (a) the copies of such edition are not made available in Singapore; or
    (b) such copies have not been put on sale in Singapore for a period of 6 months,
by the owner of the right of reproduction or by any person authorised by him in this behalf to the general public, or in connection with systematic instructional activities at a price reasonably related to that normally charged in Singapore for comparable works, any qualified person may apply to the Copyright Tribunal for a licence to reproduce and publish such work in printed or analogous forms of reproduction at the price at which such edition is sold or at a lower price for the purposes of systematic instructional activities.
(2) Every such application shall be made in such form as may be prescribed and shall state the proposed retail price of a copy of the work to be reproduced.
(3) Every applicant for a licence under this section shall, along with his application, deposit with the Copyright Tribunal such fee as may be prescribed.
(4) Where an application is made to the Copyright Tribunal under this section, it may, after holding such inquiry as may be prescribed, grant to the applicant a licence, not being an exclusive licence to produce and publish a reproduction of the work mentioned in the application subject to the conditions that,—
    (a) the applicant shall pay to the owner of the copyright in the work royalties in respect of copies of the reproduction of the work sold to the public, calculated at such rate as the Copyright Tribunal may, in the circumstances of each case, determine in the prescribed manner, except that the royalties shall be consistent with the standards normally operating in the case of licences freely negotiated between persons in Singapore and owners of reproduction rights in the country of the owner of the reproduction right.
    (b) a licence granted under this section shall not extend to the export of copies of the reproduction of the work outside Singapore and every copy of such reproduction shall contain ​a notice that the copy is available for distribution only in Singapore.
(5) No licence shall be granted to an applicant under this section unless—
    (a) the applicant has proved to the satisfaction of the Copyright Tribunal that he—had requested and had been denied authorisation by the owner of the copyright in the work to reproduce and publish such work or that he was, after due diligence on his part, unable to find such owner;
    (b) where the applicant was, after due diligence on his part, unable to find the owner of the copyright, he had sent a copy of his request for such authorisation by registered air-mail post to the publisher whose name appears from the work not less than 3 months before the application for the licence;
    (c) the applicant had informed any national or international centre designated for this purpose by the government of the country in which the publisher of the work to be reproduced is believed to have his principal place of business;
    (d) the Copyright Tribunal is satisfied that the applicant is competent to reproduce and publish an accurate reproduction of the work and possesses the means to pay to the owner of the copyright the royalties payable to him under this section;
    (e) the applicant undertakes to reproduce and publish the work at such price as may be fixed by the Copyright Tribunal being a price reasonably related to the price normally charged in Singapore for works of the same standard on the same or similar subjects;
    (f) a period of 6 months in the case of an application for the reproduction and publication of any work of natural science, physical science, mathematics or technology, or a period of 3 months in the case of an application for the reproduction and publication of any other work, has elapsed from the date of making the request under paragraph (a), or where a copy of the request has been sent under paragraph (b), from the date of sending of a copy, and a reproduction of the work has not ​been published by the owner of the copyright in the work or any person authorised by him within the said period of 6 months or 3 months, as the case may be;
    (g) the name of the author and the title of the particular edition of the work proposed to be reproduced are printed on all the copies of the reproduction;
    (h) the author has not withdrawn from circulation copies of the work; and
    (i) an opportunity of being heard is given, wherever practicable, to the owner of the copyright in the work.
(6) No licence to reproduce and publish the translation of a work shall be granted under this section unless such translation has been published by the owner of the right of translation or any person authorised by him and the translation is in a language in general use in Singapore.
(7) The provisions of this section shall also apply to the reproduction and publication, or translation into a language in general use in Singapore, of any text incorporated in audio-visual fixations prepared and published solely for the purpose of systematic instructional activities.
(8) For the purposes of this section, “relevant period”, in relation to any work, means a period of—
    (a) seven years from the date of the first publication of that work, where the application is for the reproduction and publication of any work of, or relating to fiction, poetry, drama, music or art;
    (b) three years from the date of the first publication of that work, where the application is for the reproduction and publication of any work of, or relating to natural science, physical science, mathematics or technology; and
    (c) five years from the date of the first publication of that work, in any other case.
​Licence for domestic broadcasting organisation
146.—(1) The Singapore Broadcasting Corporation or any qualified person who is the holder of a licence for a television or broadcasting station may apply to the Copyright Tribunal for a licence to produce and publish the translation of—
    (a) a work referred to in section 144 and published in printed or analogous forms of reproduction; or
    (b) any text incorporated in audio-visual fixations prepared and published solely for the purpose of systematic instructional activities,
for broadcasting such translation for the purposes of teaching or for the dissemination of the results of specialised, technical or scientific research to the experts in any particular field.
(2) The provisions of section 144(2) to (4) shall, with the necessary modifications, apply to the grant of a licence under this section and such licence shall not also be granted unless—
    (a) the translation is made from a work lawfully acquired;
    (b) the broadcast is made through the medium of sound and visual recordings;
    (c) such recording has been lawfully and exclusively made for the purpose of broadcasting in Singapore by the applicant or by any other broadcasting agency; and
    (d) the translation and the broadcasting of such translation are not used for any commercial purpose.
Termination of licences issued under this Part
147.—(1) If at any time after the granting of a licence to produce and publish the translation of a work in any language under section 144 (referred to in this section as the licensed work), the owner of the copyright in the work or any person authorised by him publishes a translation of such work in the same language and which is substantially the same in content at a price reasonably related to the price normally charged in Singapore for the translation of works of the ​same standard on the same or similar subject, the licence so granted shall subject to this section be terminated.
(2) If, at any time after the granting of a licence to produce and publish the reproduction or translation of any work under section 145, the owner of the right of reproduction or any person authorised by him sells or distributes copies of such work or a translation thereof, as the case may be, in the same language and which is substantially the same in content at a price reasonably related to the price normally charged in Singapore for works of the same standard on the same or similar subject, the licence so granted shall subject to this section be terminated.
(3) No termination of the licence shall take effect until after the expiry of a period of 3 months from the date of service of a notice in the prescribed manner on the person holding the licence by the owner of the right of reproduction or of the right of translation, as the case may be, intimating the sale or distribution of the copies of the editions of work as aforesaid.
(4) Copies of the licensed work produced and published or already reproduced by the licensee before the termination of his licence takes effect may continue to be sold or distributed until such copies are exhausted.
Discontinuation of this Part
148.—(1) The Minister may, by order published in the Gazette, discontinue the operation of this Part.
(2) Any order made for the purpose of subsection (1) may contain savings and transitional provisions with respect to licences granted under this Part.