Lu wants Taiwan off US' 301 list

The nation's number two man in charge of protecting intellectual property rights (IPR) said yesterday that the US should remove Taiwan from its Special 301 Priority Watch List of IPR violators when the list comes up for review in April because of Taipei's increased efforts in cracking down on piracy.

"It would not be fair to keep Taiwan on the Special 301 Priority Watch List because we put a great deal of effort into IPR protection last year," said Jack Lu (盧文祥), deputy director general of the Ministry of Economic Affairs's Intellectual Property Office.

Lu said that a special 220-strong anti-piracy task force set up by the government last year seized pirated goods worth more than NT$1 billion -- an increase of 20 percent over 2001 seizures.

The US has repeatedly called for legal reform to improve the situation.

Currently the police are unable to launch independent investigations against pirates without first receiving a complaint from an individual or organization.

Proposed amendments to the Copyright Law (著作權法) to allow police to initiate arrests on counterfeiting have yet to be passed by the Legislative Yuan.

Lu said yesterday that he feels "fully confident" the amendments will pass in this legislative session, scheduled to end in June.

Lu was speaking at the launch of a campaign organized by the Motion Picture Association to offer cash rewards for information leading to the arrest of counterfeiters.

The campaign targets Taiwan and seven other Asian countries.

Hank Kwo (郭戎), executive director of the Taiwan branch of the Motion Picture Association, said that his association was providing a war chest of US$150,000 in rewards for this year and opening a national hotline to report on factories burning fake DVDs.

Last week, the government increased its own anti-piracy reward from NT$1 million to a maximum of NT$10 million.

Richard O'Neill, director of the International Motion Picture Association, praised the government's efforts last year, but said more needs to be done.

"At the Intellectual Property Office they're doing some remarkable work," O'Neill said, "but on the enforcement side, I'm never satisfied."

Comparing the fight against movie piracy to a boxing match, O'Neill said the government was barely halfway through the fight.

"We're in the fifth round of a 12-rounder," he said.

Asia is home to the world's most rampant pirating of movies, the association reported yesterday.

Last year 87 percent of the 7 million pirated movie disks seized were in Asia.

In this country, 44 percent of disks sold are illegal copies, costing the movie industry US$42 million last year.