I REFER to Mr Ngiam Shih Tung's letter "Copyright Act amendments tilt balance" (ST, Aug 31).
He now acknowledges that the amendments do not give any new powers to copyright owners, and that the network service provider has a choice when faced with a statutory declaration of infringement.
Mr Ngiam's concern now is how a network service provider will exercise this choice.
One would expect commercial realities and pressures to cause network service providers to exercise the choice in a responsible manner.
A network service provider who removes websites too readily may find he has few customers for his web hosting service.
Mr Ngiam says that because the removal of materials is done by the network service provider, the complainant will not be responsible for the removal.
He is wrong on the law.
The law is full of instances where redress is given for harm caused through the agency of an innocent third party.
We are in the early stages of law-making for the digital environment.
Naturally there will be differences in approaches between countries and, within each country, opinions will also differ on how best to craft such new laws.
But this is no reason to delay putting new laws into effect.
Mr Ngiam's concern about the need to strike a right balance between the interests of copyright owners and the interests of others is valid.
The recent amendments represent the balance arrived at after an extensive consultation process taking into account views and opinions of different sectors.
We will monitor closely how the new provisions work out in practice and will continue our consultations with the public and private sectors.
As stated in Parliament, this is a fast-developing area of the law.
We may have to make further refinements in the light of experience.
PANG KHANG CHAU
Deputy
Director
Ministry of Law