At a crowded night market in Taipei, vendors blare techno music or yell at the top of their lungs to draw attention to goods ranging from oyster omelettes to clothes to furry puppies.
But at one stand, a rich collection of pirated Hollywood blockbusters, Hong Kong pop music and Japanese soap operas lies unattended on a wooden table.
No vendor is in sight. A handwritten note asks buyers to drop their money in a white plastic box. A counterfeit disc costs as little as US$1.50, compared with US$9 for a copyrighted one.
The nation's CD pirates are slipping into the shadows, no longer daring to man their stalls, fearful of getting caught as pressure from the US forces authorities to step up their anti-piracy campaign.
"The government has finally recognized that this is a serious problem, but drastic and speedy measures must be taken to solve it," said Hank Kwuo (
The US will decide in coming months if the country should stay on its 301 "priority watch list" of the world's worst copyright offenders for a third year in a row.
A decision against Taiwan could lead to trade retaliation from its second biggest export market.
That danger does not worry the pirates, although the threat of prosecution has made them much less brazen than they used to be about selling their wares.
And the more careful strategy is working.
Exasperated prosecutors say to make a case, pirates must be caught red-handed and even then crafty vendors, many of whom have links with crime gangs, often escape the law.
"A man caught selling fake CDs in a night market managed to persuade all the other vendors on his street to testify in court that he was only a fruit seller," said one prosecutor who declined to be identified. "He was freed. It's very frustrating."
Stories like that do not help the central government as it tries to safeguard its precious political and trade ties with its most powerful ally, the US.
Washington considers Taiwan one of the top three sources of counterfeit compact discs, along with Brazil and Russia. The US entertainment industry and software companies say Taiwan pirates cost them US$756 million last year.
But that is of little concern to most residents, many of whom are happy to enjoy some bargains as the nation's once-sizzling economy crawls back from its worst recession ever in 2001.
It is little wonder nearly half of music and movie CDs sold in Taiwan are counterfeit when most blockbusters are available in markets long before cinemas that charge US$7 a ticket.
"Do you have any idea how expensive it is to take the whole family for a movie? Do you know how much a copyrighted CD costs?" said Chen Pei-sheng, a 36-year-old father of three, as he flicked through a stack of discs at a market.
"The economy is weak and I don't earn much. These suit me just fine," said the salesman, puffing on a cigarette as he picks up a copy of the latest James Bond thriller.
Pirate CD production has dealt a severe blow to the local entertainment industry. Losses recently forced a cinema in central Taiwan to shut down and others are on the brink of bankruptcy.
"The technology in Taiwan to make pirated optical discs is second to none in terms of quality and quantity," Kwuo said.
Hollywood's Motion Picture Association says piracy in Asia has evolved into highly organized mob operations.
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