SingaporeCopyright Act, Computational Data Analysis Exception and Non-Override Rule
Copyright Act 2021, ss. 243-244 and s. 187 (Computational Data Analysis Exception)
In force since .
A copyright and text and data mining (TDM) rule binding public and private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- An app may copy a work or a recording of a protected performance for computational data analysis, including to train a model, only if it has lawful access to the material (not obtained by circumventing a paywall or breaching a database's terms of use), does not use the copy for any other purpose, and does not supply the copy to any other person except to verify the results or for collaborative research or study relating to that purpose.
- A contract term purporting to exclude or restrict this computational data analysis exception is void and does not bind the app.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Section 244 permits a copy for computational data analysis on conditions (no other use, no supply to others except to verify the results or for collaborative research, lawful access to the source), and section 187 makes a contract term void to the extent it excludes or restricts that use. Section 244(3) says that making a copy includes storing or retaining it, which limits the copy and is not a record duty. Nothing in either section requires anyone to create, keep, produce or review a log or record, and neither carries a territorial clause.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Section 244 makes it a permitted use for a person to copy a work or a recording of a protected performance for computational data analysis, or to prepare it for computational data analysis, including using the work as an example of a type of data to improve the functioning of a computer program (the Act's own illustration is training a computer program to recognise images), provided the copier does not use the copy for any other purpose, does not supply the copy except to verify the results or for collaborative research or study, and has lawful access to the material.
Section 244(2)(d)'s illustrations state that lawful access excludes access gained by circumventing paywalls or breaching a database's terms of use. Section 187 makes any contract term void to the extent it purports to exclude or restrict this permitted use, so a website's terms of service cannot override the exception, though they can still govern how the first copy was lawfully obtained. The Act carries no sui generis database right distinct from ordinary copyright protection.
Sections 187, 243 and 244 fall outside the two carve-outs in the Act's own commencement clause, so they came into force with the rest of the Act on .
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app crawls the web or trains models.
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