Teenager gets 3 months for selling pirated VCDs

The Taipei District Court yesterday handed a three-month sentence to an 18-year-old for violating the Copyright Law (著作權法).

Chiang Chueh-jung (江爵榮) was convicted of selling pirated VCDs at the Jao-ho Night Market.

He was arrested at the night market by officers from the city's Sungshan Precinct on Nov. 18 last year.

According to court documents, Chiang said he was hired by an unidentified suspect nicknamed "Fatty" (小胖) to sell the movies for NT$100 each at the night market.

Chiang said "Fatty" paid him NT$1,000 a day for selling the VCDs.

Chiang said that when he was arrested, he had only been in business for one hour and that he had only sold five VCDs.

The arresting officers confiscated 150 VCDs from Chiang that evening.

Among the 150 confiscated VCDs were recent titles, including Training Day and Legally Blonde.

Chiang has maintained that "Fatty" was the mastermind behind the business, but the police involved in the case say they have not found him.

Police said they are still investigating to see if anyone else was involved.

Judge Huang Shao-hung's (黃紹紘) verdict said that Chiang's three-month sentence can be replaced by a fine of NT$300 a day for every day Chiang was sentenced to serve in prison.

"Chiang violated articles 87 and 93 of the Copyright Law," Huang said in the verdict.

"He sold the pirated VCDs in public for profit without authorization, even though he knew it was illegal. According to the Criminal Code, he may face a sentence of up to two years in prison or a replacement fine of up to NT$100,000," Huang said.

According to the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法), Chiang has the right to appeal to the Taiwan High Court within the next 10 days.