The Changhua District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday charged a man with infringing intellectual property rights for making illegal copies of Japanese pornographic films and selling them online.
Prosecutors said the videos are original creative material which involved professionals working on scripts, set design, acting and filming, and the works are protected under the Copyright Act (著作權法).
The case began in 2014, when Japanese pornographic production company CA Co discovered a Taiwanese man surnamed Chen (陳) selling its videos featuring Rin Sakuragi and other actors on online auction sites, and filed a lawsuit against him.
Investigators found Chen made illegal copies on his computer, producing DVDs for sale online at NT$30 per disk.
Chen insisted adult video materials (or AV as pornographic products are known in Japan and Taiwan) are not protected under the Copyright Act.
The indictment said the videos by CA Co were produced by a team of professionals.
There was post-production work, along with the company’s marketing and promotion efforts, and the films had passed inspection with approval for sale by the Japanese Ethical Review Association, one of the monitoring boards of Japan’s AV industry, and as such the videos are “original creative material,” the court said.
In past rulings by Taiwanese courts, AV products were deemed obscene and in violation of public order and social morality, and therefore not applicable for copyright protection.
However, the Intellectual Property Court made a landmark ruling in February last year, which deemed that foreign-made pornographic videos are protected by the Copyright Act if they are original creative material.
The ruling was brought about by a group of AV businesses from Japan, headed up by Momotaro Inc, against two Taiwanese men for the illegal copying, sales and distribution of their videos.
The ruling was subsequently upheld by the Taipei District Court in May last year, in another lawsuit filed by Japanese film studio MAX-A against 12 Taiwanese companies, including Yamedia Inc on charges of illegal distribution and copyright infringement.
The May ruling said: “Copyright law is to protect all forms of human ideas and expressions, and should protect the spirit of creativity. The law protects the intellectual creations by individuals and of their investment. It does not pass judgment on morality, social customs or if the product was good or bad. It shall not be decided for the products not to receive copyright protection, just because it has sexually explicit contents.”
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