What can TRS do to circumvent the MDA ruling?

By Alan Tay May 4, 2015 at 10:19am

In February, I speculated that TRS will not cease operations despite the criminal charges against them because of the lucrative income it was getting from advertisment revenue, notably from Google adsense:

“TRS has 6 advertisement spots – 1 x 728 by 90 Leaderboard, 2 x 120 by 600 Skyscraper, 2 x 300 by 300 Square and 1 out-link dashboard at the bottom [The screenshot is appended at the end of this post]. TRS has been in operation since 2012. Notwithstanding that they got into trouble with defamation laws, they continued operations by stealing other people’s work as their own, (lousy) paraphrasing of Straits Times/Today/CNA reports as their own, fabricating contents to boost page views and embellished articles to attract more hits to their website. The latest criminal probe into their act did not deter them because the advertisement income from Google Adsense is too lucrative. They have too much to lose if they ceased operations.” [https://www.facebook.com/notes/alan-tay/the-real-singapore-trs-leeches-stealing-from-hardworking-honest-singaporeans/543784632427852]

Until now, TRS refused to disclose their income from ad revenue, despite police written demands. And they are willing to be charged for that! Why are they so determined to keep their ad revenue secret?

It takes a government with very strong political will to use such heavy handed method to cease TRS’s operations simply because nothing deters TRS from profitting at the expense of Singapore’s harmony. TRS knows the western liberals are on their side, especially the Australian media which gave a bias overview of the case that favoured its fellow citizen Ai Takagi. Will the foreigners start harping on press freedom in Singapore next, since Roy Ngerng has a track record of sending appeals to non-Singapore bodies to put pressure on the Singapore? Roy Ngerng has vested interest in keeping TRS alive and accessible since he writes for TRS [Proof: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=507162466090069&set=pb.100003889601054.-2207520000.1430705415].

Despite MDA’s clear instructions that outlined what TRS and its owners cannot do, MDA did not say TRS owners cannot transfer or sell their database to another party to let that party continue operations. MDA also did not forbid TRS from selling therealsingapore.comdomain to another party. Simply, MDA merely listed things that TRS cannot do.

Ai Takagi is a law student. Their legal counsel is Remy Choo. Surely they will work out a loophole?

Extracted from the MDA statement:

“Takagi and Yang were out of the jurisdiction of the Broadcasting Act as they were running their operations from outside Singapore. However, since December, the two of them have been running their operations from Singapore, bringing them within the jurisdiction of the Broadcasting Act…..[snip]…The MDA has notified Takagi and Yang to immediately stop posting any more articles on TRS and related services; and within six hours disable access to their website and related computer on-line services. Thereafter, they are not to resume operations under any other name.”

Let me speculate what TRS can do next: Sell TRS database to a party outside of Singapore. Set up a new domain and server outside Singapore, import the database, continue operation under a different name, operated by a different person.

Are you able to think of ways to circumvent the MDA ruling? The income from Google adsense is too good.