Retailers run afoul of copyright law

A group of electrical appliance traders yesterday protested what they said were unfair charges against them, after they were sued for copyright violations for selling VCD and DVD players that offered free, unauthorized karaoke discs.

The traders argued that the manufacturers of the discs should be responsible if there were any violations.

"We were unaware as to which songs were protected under the Copyright Law," said Wu Kun-chun (吳坤駿), a Taipei trader. "There should be a convincing reason if we are to be punished."

According to the traders, some of the VCD and DVD player suppliers offer customers free karaoke discs, which might contain dozens of songs on a single disc.

As the traders only gave the discs to customers as per the instructions of the suppliers, they did not go through the selections song by song to determine whether they were authorized or not. The first they heard of the problem was after charges were brought against them.

"We were detained by police [for questioning] for hours just because a couple of songs on the discs were discovered to be unauthorized," said Hung Shu-hsun (洪樹勳), another Taipei trader.

The protesters said over 100 electrical appliance traders around Taiwan had encountered the same problem, and their fates could be rather different -- depending on the attitudes of the prosecutors handling their cases.

Some traders have escaped indictment from prosecutors, but some have been forced to pay up to NT$300,000 to reach a settlement with plaintiffs.

KMT Legislator Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛), who first received the traders' complaints, urged authorities to find out who the manufacturer of the disks is and focus their copyright protection efforts in the right direction.

"The electrical appliance traders have virtually no idea how to deal with the problem," Pan said.

Ching Chi-jen (慶啟人), a prosecutor from the Ministry of Justice's Department of Prosecutorial Affairs, said prosecutors would definitely take action against the manufacturers as long as there was sufficient evidence.

She welcomed the traders to help with the investigation.

On measures to protect their own rights, the traders should obtain guarantee documents from the suppliers to prove the legality of their products, Ching said.

"With such protective measures, the traders can claim innocence when under investigation by prosecutors," Ching said.

The traders should refuse to sell the products if they are unsure about their origins, she added.

Lu Wen-hsiang (盧文祥), deputy director-general of the Intellectual Property Office under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, agreed that the manufacturers were those who were doing the authorized duplication of the records and therefore should be subject to punishment under the Copyright Law.

Meanwhile, Lu said his office would issue booklets to educate electrical appliance traders on copy-right issues and regulations as soon as possible.