SINGAPORE: The owner of a karaoke lounge that played Chinese pop songs without the required licences, breaching the Copyright Act, was fined S$20,000 (US$16,000) on Thursday (Jan 22).

The lounge, Catwalk, is owned by Slim Entertainment and located in the Textile Centre at Jalan Sultan.

In October, the Composers and Authors Society of Singapore (COMPASS) – a licensing body that protects the rights of music writers – mounted an uncommon private prosecution against the firm.

Ten songs by Jay Chou and JJ Lin were named in the 20 charges that Slim Entertainment faced, with half of the charges relating to the musical or composition part of the works, and the other half relating to the lyrics.

Slim Entertainment is accused of infringing copyright by causing the songs to be performed in public for its private profit.

District Judge Shaifuddin Saruwan found that the prosecution had established all the charges against Slim Entertainment beyond a reasonable doubt.

Slim Entertainment was convicted then, after a short hearing where the defendant did not turn up.

On Thursday, the defendant again did not appear in court for sentencing.

COMPASS’ solicitor from Coleman Street Chambers told the court that commercial players like the defendant should not be "let off easily".

Judge Shaifuddin agreed with the solicitors’ proposed sentence, saying: "The respondent has shown a blatant disregard for the law in not responding, as you said, to all your notifications to him with regard to the court proceedings before me."

COMPASS is a non-profit organisation regulated by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore.

It collectively manages and licenses around 19.5 million musical works and their associated literary works on behalf of music creators, namely authors, composers and publishers, according to the prosecution.

Despite multiple attempts by COMPASS to highlight to the firm that it had breached the Copyright Act, Slim Entertainment refused to obtain the necessary licences, the prosecution previously told the court.

When Slim Entertainment failed to respond to numerous letters from COMPASS, two of its licensing executives booked a room at Catwalk and sang songs in order to record evidence.

COMPASS has mounted a separate private prosecution against Slim Entertainment’s director Seah Ghim Siong, which is still before the courts.

For each count of infringing copyright by causing a copyrighted work to be performed in public for private profit, the company could have been fined up to S$40,000.

A person convicted of such an offence can be jailed for up to two years, fined up to S$20,000, or both.