Software piracy a big problem?
Selling pirated software can be big business as well as big penalties. The most common titles are from Microsoft, Office, Windows. I'm sure you've spotted a few shop in Sim Lim Square selling illegal copies. Maybe you've even purchased a few. Microsoft is a big company, they can afford it right? Is software piracy a bigger problem than we think?
Billions of dollars in revenue are lost due to software piracy every year. File sharing web sites like bit torrent allow for users around the world to benefit from illegal software. The copyright issue spans across the globe and industries.
Despite large corporations efforts to eliminate piracy, hackers always seem to find a way around copy protection. Often new methods of copyright protection is cracked within a matter of hours. However savvy consumers have reported such shops. Often if the deal looks too good to be true then there must be a catch. Remember that money for a legit copy goes towards the development of new features and updates. If you like the software buy it, the real one, not the fake.
Complaints against retailers in Sim Lim Square are on the rise again, five years after the launch of a well-publicised effort to get store owners to clean up their act.
According to the Consumers' Association of Singapore (Case), shopper complaints have risen steadily, from 119 in 2006, to 188 in 2007, to 133 so far this year. The Funan IT Mall, by comparison, usually receives between 20 and 30 complaints a year.
Twice, doctors told him he may not live for long – once when he was a child, and then again two years ago.
But private equity investor Alvin Lim, 43, great-grandson of Singapore pioneer Lim Nee Soon, has not only survived, he has now got married.
His bride is a Vietnamese less than half his age, whom he met through a matchmaking agency.
Mr Lim did not succumb to either the blood disorder he has or an infection he got from a hospital.
On 12 Jul, he exchanged vows with Miss Mary Nguyen, 20, in the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. A wedding dinner was held for 88 guests at the Ritz Carlton Millenia the following day.
An amateur golfer who took the distributor of Mercedes-Benz cars to court over his expulsion from a tournament has been let back in, The Straits Times understands.
Mr Lionel Lim and auto giant Daimler South East Asia on Friday reached an out-of-court settlement on the dispute through their lawyers.
Both sides were tight-lipped after leaving Justice Andrew Ang's chambers.
They would only say the matter had been resolved amicably and that the terms were confidential.
Mr Lim, who was waiting for his lawyer outside, also declined to reveal the outcome.