United States and Singapore sign trade agreement, punishing people who bypass copy-protections

According to the trade agreement, any person who "circumvents without authority any effective technological measure" or distributes a hardware device or software utility that performs a circumvention function will be violating the law. The language tracks closely that of the DMCA, which the U.S. Congress enacted in 1998 over the objections of some librarians and computer scientists, who see it as a threat to legitimate research and to legitimate uses of copyrighted materials.

The agreement "breaks new ground in emerging areas like e-commerce," Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said. "It also establishes high standards in intellectual property, transparency and customs. The FTA will expand opportunities for American businesses in Singapore. More importantly, the U.S.-Singapore FTA can be a model for other FTAs."

Under the deal, Singapore agrees to prevent its citizens from manufacturing optical discs unless they hold "a valid license to do so." The agreement also says it will be "a criminal offense willfully to receive or further distribute an encrypted program-carrying satellite signal that has been decoded without the authorization of the lawful distributor of the signal."