While recent rulings of US courts against MP3.com and Napster have cast doubt on the future of the online MP3 music business, a debate has just begun in Taiwan over the legality of downloading MP3 files following a search at a university in southern Taiwan last week.
"If it is determined that it is illegal for students to download MP3 files for their own use, I guess over 90 percent of university students could be held liable for that," said an electronic engineering postgraduate student at National Taiwan University, referring to the search by the Tainan District Prosecutors' Office last Wednesday.
"We're aware of the controversies surrounding the online swapping of MP3 music files and that misuse of the technology may infringe on copyrights. But it has only just occurred to me that simply downloading MP3 music could get one into big trouble," he said, adding that he disapproved of the actions taken against the students of National Chengkung University (
MP3, a technology for compressing audio sounds or music on a computer, has become extremely popular with PC users in Taiwan, and especially university students, who have easy access to computers and feel that music CDs are too expensive.
It is all too common for students to grab MP3 music files from the Internet and keep them handy in their hard drives. And with dozens of Web sites providing free downloads of MP3 files, music can be obtained for almost nothing.
Moreover, where a full five-minute song would normally take up to 60Mb at a 44kHz sampling rate, it only takes 4 or 5Mb using MP3 compression, with no noticeable loss in quality.
Using the MP3 format, over 100 songs with different copyright ownerships can be kept on a single CD, but legally this often involves infringement of copyright.
In Taiwan, there have been cases where students who made a profit from selling pirated CDs produced using MP3 technology were found guilty of violating the Copyright Law.
Robin Lee (李瑞斌), secretary-general of the non-official International Federation of the Phonographics Industry (國際唱片交流協會), said that in 2000 there were 1,460 cases of crackdowns on the sale of pirated CDs at night markets, CD stores, as well as on campuses.
Lee said quite a few students set up their own Web sites providing free downloads of MP3 music files, while many more frequently use the free services without thinking of the legal consequences.
In the wake of the search at Chengkung University, a debate has emerged over whether students will be permitted to access MP3 music files for their own entertainment if they do not attempt to profit from it.
Chen Jen-chieh (
The forms of online reproduction include uploading, downloading, posting, forwarding, pasting, digitalizing, browsing and printing.
In theory, one could be held liable under the law for simply downloading or printing material from the Web without authorization.
However, Chen said the law allows exemptions under the circumstances of "fair use," which include the use of copyrighted materials for educational purposes, in the judicial process, or for personal non-profit use.
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