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
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘ADDITIONAL CONDITION’: Taiwan will work with like-minded countries to protect its right to participate in next year’s meeting, the foreign ministry said The US will “continue to press China for security arrangements and protocols that safeguard all participants when attending APEC meetings in China,” a US Department of State spokesperson said yesterday, after Beijing suggested that members must adhere to its “one China principle” to participate. “The United States insists on the full and equal participation of all APEC member economies — including Taiwan — consistent with APEC’s guidelines, rules and established practice, as affirmed by China in its offer to host in 2026,” the unnamed spokesperson said in response to media queries about China putting a “one China” principle condition on Taiwan’s
RSS