CD copyright violations may be deemed criminal

Responding to a strongly critical US report, a high-level economic official said yesterday that Taiwan will work to incorporate criminal statutes into an anti-CD piracy draft law.

Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Chen Ruey-long (陳瑞隆) said his ministry will gather related government agency officials in the next few days to discuss the statutes.

Chen said the ministry will specify criminal responsibility for copyright infringements in an optical media management statute currently being drafted in accordance with similar measures in the Copyright Law.

Chen's remarks came a day after the release of a 471-page report on foreign trade barriers compiled by the US Trade Representative (USTR) Office.

The 10 pages dedicated to Taiwan detail US concerns for trade barriers in such major areas as intellectual property rights and the island's telecommunications market.

The report makes special reference to CD and DVD duplicators, or "optical media manufacturing machinery."

"It is critical that Taiwan adopt a legal requirement to license the import and use of optical media manufacturing machinery, as Taiwan is one of the world's largest producers of these products," the US report says.

Following the publication of the report, the USTR Office is scheduled to publish its annual list of countries that require close monitoring and could be subject to trade sanctions under the Special 301 provisions of the 989 US Omnibus Trade Act if the countries fail to address US concerns.

Chen said the US has demanded that Taiwan impose stricter laws to discourage CD piracy, which he said has become so rampant that pirated music CDs are sometimes available before the official products have actually hit the local market.

Officials in Taipei have speculated that the USTR Office is likely to include Taiwan on the "priority watch list" of its "Special 301" report this year to turn up the pressure on Taiwan to deal with intellectual piracy.

However, the officials have expressed optimism that timely completion of legislative preparations for the optical media management statute would keep Taiwan off the "Special 301" priority watch list, which will be published by the US at the end of April.