
It Has Begun - Singapore Considering Following USA's Lead With SOPA/PIPA - iantimothy
https://www.facebook.com/k.shanmugam.page/posts/147669282014158
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gojomo
Singapore is already 'ahead' of the US in having a site-blocking mechanism:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Singapor...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Singapore)

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>

~~~
o2sd
> Singapore has many admirable qualities

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

~~~
curiouscats
\- 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.

~~~
virtualritz
> easiest country to set up a business in the world

Could you elaborate what your base of comparison is to make such statement?
How many countries have you set businesses up in?

Speaking just of Asia, I set up businesses in Singapore and Hong Kong. The
latter was easier to setup and proved easier to run, with less running costs
over the course of 3 years so far. I also found Hong Kong to be way more
founder-friendly when it comes to getting angel money or VC.

Regarding the police state: 1st time I spent a day in Singapore, in 2005, on a
14h stopover from a long haul flight to Australia, I wanted to take a nap on a
lawn in a public park. Two police offers told me I can't and they'll have to
fine me but they'd make an exception since I'm a tourist. I was wearing a
tailor-made suit btw., not some daggy traveler attire.

That was when I knew Singapore was not for me.

Don't get me wrong, I have friends living there and they like it a lot. They
are a family of four and they do fit in the 'ideal standard' box of people the
government there wants to have as citizens.

But be careful if you don't. Singapore has laws that make homosexuals face
legal threats. And you can be fined if someone spots you walking around in
your house naked (in your own 4 walls, mind you!).

~~~
curiouscats
World Bank ranking: [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/10-easiest-
countrie...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/10-easiest-countries-to-
s_n_1194511.html#s598394&title=1__Singapore)

Granted most any subjective ranking has plenty of room for argument. There
isn't likely truly any clearly #1 for "setting up a business" as so much
depends on the situation. But Singapore consistently is ranked very highly on
this measure.

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fpgeek
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.

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iantimothy
The article that the Law Minister linked to:
[http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/vi...](http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1176385/1/.html)

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hanxu
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-terra
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
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.

~~~
guard-of-terra
Okay, why then enforce those laws? You can pass them but never enforce. It's
your country, who can tell you what to judge for.

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

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guard-of-terra
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?

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

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caller9
So they are going to cut and run once their population becomes aware of the
legislation despite a traditional media blackout?

