Despite the absence of legislation, Taiwan now has no major commercial P2P operators after its two biggest music file-sharing sites -- kuro.com.tw (
While inclusion on the US watch list does not present Taiwan with the danger of trade sanctions, it is a factor the US will use in its decisions on Taiwan's bid for a free-trade agreement with the US, which has been a priority issue for President Chen Shui-bian's (
Bilateral talks in recent years under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement have substantially narrowed trade frictions in other areas, but Taiwan's failure to make a big improvement in its intellectual property rights record has remained a persistent concern of US industry.
The decision to keep Taiwan on the list, where it has been since 2001, was not unexpected.
It was heralded in February when the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), the trade association representing the sectors of the US industry that suffers from piracy, recommended that the US trade office keep Taiwan on the list.
But in an action that went counter to the IIPA recommendations, the US trade office declined to commit itself to reconsidering its decision in the fall.
In the past, the US trade office has faithfully followed IIPA recommendations and the decision not to hold a so-called "out-of-cycle-review" later this year to reconsider Taiwan's status probably marked the first time the IIPA's recommendations have not been followed.
It was not immediately clear why the US trade office decided against a review in the fall, but in a press release discussing its decisions, the IIPA expressed the hope that the US government would "keep close watch on developments in the five ... countries for which IIPA recommended OCRs [out-of-cycle-reviews]," and for which the trade agency declined to order such reviews, including Taiwan.
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