The chances that Taiwan will soon be removed from a US government list of countries with troubling rates of intellectual property violations sank drastically on Monday when a powerful US business group recommended that it be kept on the list for another year.
While the group, the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), commended Taiwan for making improvements in its fight against piracy of software, videos, music, films, TV shows and books, it complained about what it called a troublesome increase in Internet piracy in Taiwan, including piracy over the government's TANet network.
The recommendations of the group, a confederation of seven trade associations representing 1,900 firms in the high-tech, entertainment and publishing industries, are usually automatically followed by the US Trade Representative office, which publishes its annual list of countries with piracy problems in the spring.
Taiwan is now on the so-called "Watch List" under the US "Special 301" trade law. Taiwan was on the more serious "Priority Watch List" until January last year, but was lowered to its current status by the trade representative's office at the recommendation of the IIPA. It had been on the priority list since 2001.
While inclusion on the Watch List presents no imminent danger of trade sanctions, it is expected to severely hamper Taiwan's efforts to make progress toward a free trade agreement with Washington, which the country's officials have been working on for several years.
It also represents another point of political contention between Taipei and Washington.
The IIPA estimates that US companies lost US$376.9 million last year as a result of piracy in Taiwan, mainly in the entertainment software and motion picture industries. While that was well below the record US$847.9 million the IIPA estimated that US firms lost in 2002, it is up from the US$320.4 million figure for 2004.
The IIPA zeroed in on the Internet when making its recommendations for action.
"Taiwan is beset by rapidly increasing instances of Internet piracy, especially through unauthorized peer-to-peer [P2P] file sharing services. As the problem grows, so must the response," the group's report said.
Internet piracy "has become the predominant form of piracy for most industries in Taiwan," the IIPA says.
For instance, it says the number of online infringements involving business software traced to Taiwan exceeded 344,000 in the first 10 months of last year, up from under 50,000 for the whole of 2004. Music, books and other types of intellectual property are also showing sharp rises in online violations.
The group said that enforcement must be expanded by the two agencies responsible, the Joint Internet Infringement Inspection Special Task Force and the IPR Police.
This should include extra resources for training, equipment and manpower for the two ill-equipped agencies.
In addition, companies providing Internet access should be asked to cooperate, and the law should be changed to clarify their liability and provide for penalties.
The TANet network "is being used widely throughout Taiwan for Internet piracy, including P2P file sharing," the group said, with the Ministry of Education claiming that it has no lawful obligation to impose controls on the situation.
The report also urged effective action against the illegal photocopying of books, especially academic texts, journals, English-language teaching materials and professional reference books.
Other recommendations include effective monitoring of exports of counterfeit cartridge-based video games and their components, and an expansion of the new Intellectual Property Court to handle more copyright cases.
The report also recommends that China remain on the US Trade Representative's Priority Watch List for another year.
It estimates that US businesses lost nearly US$2.4 billion due to piracy in China, making it the world's worst offender in piracy of intellectual property.
TAIWAN'S RESPONSE
Jack Lu (
Taiwan has made a concerted effort to improve the protection of intellectual property and had high hopes of being removed from the list, office Director-General Tsai Lien-sheng (蔡練生) said last month.
Citing a preliminary estimate, Tsai said that Taiwan's piracy rate had dropped from 43 percent in 2004 to 36 percent last year.
Additional reporting by Jessie Ho
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft