Singapore arrests three in first-ever bust for online music
piracy violations
(AP)
18 August 2005
SINGAPORE - Singapore police said Thursday they have arrested three
people, including a student, in the city-states first ever online
music piracy bust.
The unnamed trio are alleged to have at least 20,000 MP3 music
files intended for distribution on their computers, police said
in a statement.
They could be jailed for up to 5 years and fined 100,000 Singapore
dollars (US$60,600; Ð49,284). It is not immediately clear when they
would be charged.
Police said they received information from the Recording Industry
Association of Singapore, which groups some of the largest
recording companies, such as Sony BMG, Warner and Universal Music,
in March about their activities in an Internet chat forum.
Police conducted extensive probes into the said Internet Relay
Chat channel and managed to ascertain the identities of the
perpetrators, the statement read.
Singapore, a wealthy Southeast Asian city-state of 4.2 million, is
among the most wired countries in the world, with around eight in
10 households owning personal computers.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2005/August/theworld_August497.xml§ion=theworld