Piracy still difficult to wipe out

The price was hard to beat.

"For NT$80 only, all of A-mei's (阿妹) greatest hits and many others'," was the recent pitch of one vendor at a bustling night market in southern Taiwan. "Buy five and get one free."

The alluring price tag was less than one third of what one could expect to pay for the pop diva's album at a music store. It probably also explains why the night market vendor had little problem drawing a crowd of customers.

But while the proprietor was counting up his receipts, he also kept a watchful eye out for police who might pull the plug on his business: The sale of pirated music.

While there are no hard numbers, there's plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that the market for pirated music is booming in Taiwan. At night markets around the country, it's common to see vendors hawking cheap knock offs of popular musicians' albums -- and they practically go for a song.

`FRUSTRATED'

"Sometimes you feel so frustrated by the rampant piracy that you think you are going to quit," said songwriter Chen Yu-jen (陳玉貞), who is more commonly know as Wa Wa (娃娃). "But you know you love doing music so much, you keep hoping the situation might change some day."

According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in Taiwan, album sales are an NT$10 billion business in Taiwan, but roughly 30 percent of that are pirated and counterfeit albums for which artists are not paid. The figure is about 10 percent higher than in 1997, according to the federation.

The industry estimates that 80 percent of all pirated albums distributed in Taiwan are sold at night markets, while the remainder are CDs that students produce in the MP3 format, which are either given away or sold.

There have also been reports of students at elementary and secondary schools who have been hired to distribute catalogs of pirated albums. The students earn a commission for their work.

In addition, university students -- who have the technological know-how and equipment -- have also been known to be manufacturers of pirated albums on a small scale.

But while some students traffic in pirated music as a part of an entrepreneurial endeavor, most are simply downloading MP3 music files from the Internet.

Such students were the targets of a raid earlier this month at Chengkung University, when Tainan prosecutors seized the computers of 14 students suspected of downloading copyrighted MP3 music files from the Web.

NO ANGELS

Taipei District Prosecutor Chang Shau-ping (張紹斌) says that it's foolish to assume that all students are angels, as some have been caught breaking the law.

"As students make such a big fuss over the search at Chengkung University, they are trying to say that students never do anything wrong," Chang said. "But if one simply checks court records or news clippings, they would know that there are indeed students who are engaged in the piracy business.

"The media have shown great sympathy for the students without really thinking about whether the students did something wrong, even though the [alleged] crime is only a misdemeanor."

Meanwhile, with the outpouring of support for the 14 Chengkung students and the accompanying protests, some doubt whether Taiwan will ever take seriously the protection of intellectual property rights. Wa Wa, the songwriter, said that with the recent protests, musicians, artists and producers have little reason to believe copyrights will ever be adequately protected.