Foxy, a peer-to-peer file-sharing program popular among Taiwanese Internet users, is illegal because it may help users illegally download files, the Banciao District Court ruled.
Foxy Media Inc’s Li Hsien-ming (李憲明) is being charged with violating the Copyright Act (著作權法).
The office of Foxy Media, which designed and promoted the software, on Huandong E Road in Yonghe, Taipei County, was closed on Wednesday evening. No one answered the door bell and the registered telephone had been disconnected. The fax number still worked, but only produced a handshake signal.
A check at the national company register showed that the company’s operations had been suspended from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 this year.
Prosecutors say that Li had developed a Chinese-language version of the Foxy software through the US company Macsense and then posted it on the Foxy site, as well as other Web sites.
Users could download the software, which allows keyword searches for and downloads of music, movie, image and other files.
Li and his company have made continuous improvements to the program and added a shop to its Web site where it sold media players for files downloaded with the Foxy program. The company had also run an advertising campaign.
Prosecutors argued that the Foxy file exchange Web site and the file-sharing program violated the music copyrights of What’s Music International Inc and Universal Music Group and the film copyrights of Disney, Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox.
Lawsuits had previously been brought against peer-to-peer programs Kuro and ezPeer in Taiwan. The suits resulted in a conviction for Kuro, while ezPeer was cleared of charges because it merely provided a way to transfer information, images, videos and text.
In November 2007, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said that Foxy enabled copyright infringements.
The organization then submitted a document to the Ministry of Education and asked that the ministry submit the document to universities. All the universities in Taiwan consequently banned the use of Foxy on campus.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) today said that if South Korea does not reply appropriately to its request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, it would take corresponding measures to alter how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. The ministry said that it changed the nationality for South Koreans on Taiwan’s Alien Resident Certificates from “Korea” to “South Korea” on March 1, in a gesture of goodwill and based on the
The New Taipei Metro's Sanyin Line and the eastern extension of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) are scheduled to begin operations in June, the National Development Council said today. The Red Line, which terminates at Xiangshan Station, would be connected by the 1.4km extension to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, while the Sanyin Line would link New Taipei City's Tucheng and Yingge stations via Sanxia District (三峽). The council gave the updates at a council meeting reviewing progress on public construction projects for this year. Taiwan's annual public infrastructure budget would remain at NT$800 billion (US$25.08 billion), with NT$97.3
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
RSS