Revised copyright law a move backward, group says

The effective protection of intellectual property rights remains a key point of concern for the nation's movie, music and software industries, an anti-piracy coalition said yesterday.

The recently revised Copyright Law (著作權法) is actually a move backwards and is expected to generate more problems with intellectual property, the Taiwan Anti-piracy Coalition said.

The coalition said the removal of minimum penalties on some intellectual property offences was a major concern.

"We originally had high hopes for the [Copyright Law] amendment, but it turned out to be very disappointing," Robin Lee (李瑞斌), secretary-general of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry in Taiwan, said.

The Legislative Yuan passed the revised Copyright Law in June after making a total of 53 changes to a draft originally proposed by the Executive Yuan.

According to the coalition, these changes have seriously weakened copyright protection, especially regarding penalties for copyright violators, since the law defines a copyright violation as making more than five copies of a product or selling copies that are worth more than NT$30,000 on the street.

"This amendment of the law is impressive, but some changes are impractical and unacceptable," said Jonathan Chu (朱程吾), general manager of the Music Copyright Intermediary Society of Chinese Taipei.

The law is now worse than it was before, because people who make fewer than five copies or less than NT$30,000 will not be regarded as criminals, Chu said.

"It will allow individuals to make a small number of copies without worrying about violating the Copyright Law," he said. "The results can be terrible if each individual makes four copies of something and sends them to others who also intend to make several copies."

In addition, removal of the minimum six-month prison penalty would make people less worried about infringing copyright, Chu said.

The coalition said the lack of adequate intellectual property protection will have serious consequences for industry and the future of the nation's economy.

A government official urged coalition members to be patient and to wait and see.

"It will take time to see the actual result after the Legislative Yuan passed the law in June," said Margaret Chen (陳淑美), director of the Copyright Department at the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Intellectual Property Office.