New law with effect by end of year.

There's a new law which states that home users who download copyrighted music, software, movies, etc. (mainly media) on a commercial scale will be charged as a criminal and may face a jail term or a fine.

First, I would like to question the term 'commerical scale'. What is the exact definition of 'commercial scale'? Is it downloading enough to set up a company? Downloading enough to sell? Or what?

I feel that this new law that has been planned to come into effect is one of which will have no effect on the current population who are downloading files at home. I shall list my reasons below.

The created law is one which is being used as a deterrent. This law is created just to deter home users from downloading. One reason which made me think this way was the unproperly defined term of 'commercial scale'. I feel that the only reason of including that term is to be able to have a backdoor to escape from. Why would they need this? Because they will never be able to catch every single downloader. So with this unproperly defined term, they will be able to deem that all these users are not downloading at commercial scale. Which saves them an awful lot of time, allowing them to utilize their time on catching large-scale pirates. At the same time, home downloaders will be unsure of the meaning of the 'commercial scale' term which will make them afraid. When afraid, they will stop downloading, which means that the law which has been 'implemented' will be a success.

The law will only be as effective as the people enforcing it. Look at the pornography law for example. They are only effective if tip-offs are received and there is information provided. Otherwise, it will be impossible to track down each and every single downloader.

Some may think that people who download will be able to be tracked down easily. This is a misconception, because it is impossible to track down individual downloaders.

It is impossible to track down individual downloaders because of the fact that P2P (Peer-to-peer) software are not only used for the sole purpose of distributing pirated applications and copyrighted music. Music which have been copyrighted but distributed freely by independent record companies are also being shared on P2P Networks. Open-source software is also shared on the P2P Networks. For example, RedHat's Fedora Linux Distribution is also shared on the BitTorrent network. Unless ISPs (Internet Service Providers) are able to filter from between copyrighted and not copyrighted material (which in my honest opinion is totally impossible), they will not be able to detect who is downloading what.

Therefore, in my opinion, I feel that this law will have no effect on the piracy here in Singapore. Implementing this law is just as useful as lifting the ban on chewing gum. It makes no difference.