Singapore is unrolling the welcome mat for big data firms as it plans to amend its copyright laws to allow the free use of lawfully-acquired copyrighted text for analysis.
More on this from Computer Weekly:
The exception to the law will allow copying of copyrighted materials for the purpose of data analysis, where the user has lawful access to the materials that are copied. This will promote usage of big data analytics across a gamut of industries, unlocking new business opportunities, speeding up processes and reducing costs, Singapore’s law ministry said last week.
Currently, individuals and organisations that use automated techniques to analyse text, data and other content to generate insights risk infringing copyright because large-scale copying of works without permission is often involved.
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Leslie Ong, country manager for Tableau in Southeast Asia, told Computer Weekly that the government’s proposed changes to the Copyright Act will boost data analytics usage by enterprises and citizens. “It is encouraging that governance is keeping pace with the explosion of data as the future economy will revolve around decision-making based on data-driven insights,” he said. “The new move is in line with Singapore’s goal of enabling data access for more people and bringing down walled gardens.”
Ong said an open data approach has been generally beneficial for Singapore, pointing to examples such as the government’s data.gov.sg portal, which makes government data publicly available to private sector developers and community groups.
