To address concerns about intellectual property rights (IPR) protection ahead of the US' publication of its trade watch list, the Cabinet yesterday approved a draft law that would make CD piracy a criminal offense.
With the draft Optical Media Management Law (
Reactions to the proposed legislation have been mixed.
"I suspect that Taiwan will be on the Special 301 priority watch list this year because the enforcement of law in Taiwan is rather difficult," said Jeffrey Harris, who is the chairman of the intellectual property and licensing committee at the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei.
Harris said his suspicion was based on his talks with delegates from the US Trade Representative (USTR) Office's investigation team, which had conducted negotiations with Taiwanese authorities in March to learn of Taiwan's efforts to stamp out piracy.
"Optical media" is a broad term which encompasses CD, laser disc, VCD and DVD technology, among others.
Giving his approval to the planned legislation yesterday, Harris also said that some countries even incorporated both criminal and civil penalties into legislation to fight piracy and curb copyright infringement.
He added that the US has been demanding that Taiwan impose stricter laws and improve enforcement of the law to discourage counterfeiting, especially "in the CD and microchip areas."
Taiwanese government officials and copyright lawyers, however, yesterday said they believed the Cabinet's move would help to crack down on intellectual property (IP) piracy in the country.
"Now that we are imposing criminal penalties, IP piracy should be properly stemmed," said government spokesman Su Tzen-ping (
Su added the Cabinet's move was a positive response to US threats to impose trade sanctions on Taiwan if IP piracy is not curbed to the US' satisfaction.
Under the law, the penalty for optical media counterfeiting would be a prison sentence of one to three years or a fine of NT$1.5 to NT$3 million. In addition, the law stipulates that CD manufacturers must stamp identification codes on the products, or face prison sentences of up to two years or fines of NT$1.5 to NT$3 million. The identification codes are used to make it easier to crack down on counterfeiting.
"The penalty is high enough. It is equal to that for the offense of robbery. What is more important in practice, however, is whether prosecutors and judges acknowledge the seriousness of IP violations and actually enforce the law," said managing partner of the Shay & Partners Law Firm (
Although Taiwan is one of the world's largest producers of optical media products, Shay added, the general public's understanding of and respect for IP protection was still poor, as the recent police search of the computers of 14 students accused of downloading MP3 music files showed.
With the exception of Japan, several Asian countries and territories, including China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the Philippines, have all been on the Special 301 watch list.
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