The Taoyuan District Court yesterday ordered an online dealer of pirated software to pay damages totaling NT$740 million (US$22.52 million) to 10 software companies.
The court estimated that from July 2002 to January 2005, Lin Jung-peng (林榮鵬) earned NT$3 million by selling 148 different types of professional graphics software that he downloaded from a Chinese Web site before being caught by police. The court ordered Lin to pay NT$5 million for each type of software pirated in violation of the Copyright Law (著作權法).
The court had already ruled last month that Lin must serve a two-year prison sentence, after which the software companies can apply to the court to force him to make monthly payments out of his salary. Lin must also print apologies to the companies in newspapers.
Acknowledging that Lin might not be able to pay such an astronomical figure, Judge Chen Ching-yi (
Sung Hung-ti, chair of the Taiwanese branch of the Business Software Alliance, an international organization representing software manufacturers, said that the NT$5 million in civil damages per program that the companies claimed was the maximum.
However, the programs that Lin pirated typically sold for less than that on the legal market. Lin sold the programs -- including Advanced Design System, AutoCad, Cimatron and Windows operating systems -- for between NT$8,000 and NT$10,000.
The 10 companies included nine US companies and one Israeli company.
The court awarded US software manufacturer Autodesk the highest amount of compensation at NT$190 million after 38 of its programs were pirated. Parametric Technology Company was second with NT$145 million, and Bentley Systems was third with NT$135 million.
Chen said that buyers of the pirated programs could pass them on to other users, making it impossible to calculate exactly how many other people received pirated copies, as well as contributing to the severity of Lin's infringement of intellectual property rights.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
RSS