Police have seized about US$1 million worth of contraband and arrested 17 people in the biggest single haul of pirated software in Singapore, officials said yesterday.
Some 124,000 pieces of illicit computer programs, video games and music CDs were recovered Tuesday from a syndicate based in a flat, with 10 retail outlets located in public housing estates.
"This is the largest piracy syndicate police have smashed," a Singapore Police press statement said, adding that more arrests were expected.
PHOTO: AFP
It said the Business Software Alliance, a group which fights intellectual piracy worldwide, along with representatives of the computer gaming, movie and music industries, were helping police identify the seized articles.
"Of course we are very pleased by the action taken by the police," said Tarun Sawney, regional enforcement manager for the software alliance.
The suspects arrested in police raids across the island included 16 men and one woman, aged 16 to 58.
Under Singapore law, people found guilty of selling or distributing works which are protected by copyrights or trademarks can be jailed for up to five years and fined a maximum of US$57,000.
"The police do not tolerate such [a] blatant form of piracy activities," assistant superintendent Elaine Ying, head of the intellectual property rights branch of the police, said in the press statement.
"We will spare no efforts in detecting and eliminating the syndicates and [their] members. Intellectual property piracy is illegal but many are tempted to share its spoils," she said. "They are mistaken if they think that the risk is worth taking."
The Straits Times newspaper reported that the contraband was believed to have been usually smuggled by car from neighboring Malaysia.
Malaysia is reputed to be a major source of pirated movies, software and CDs sold in Southeast Asia.
The latest Singapore seizure came one month after another major haul of counterfeit software and movies worth some US$600,000 in the Orchard Road tourist belt, which resulted in five arrests, the Straits Times said.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary