A draft bill to tighten intellectual property protection on Thursday was passed to the Legislative Yuan for final approval after passing a Cabinet review.
The bill, which features a total of 93 amendments and 17 new articles to the Copyright Act (著作權法), is a huge undertaking seven years in the making.
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) reviewed copyright regulations in different nations to present a legal framework suitable for the digital age, a statement said.
Changing up to 80 percent of the act, the bill seeks to prevent intellectual property infringement, while safeguarding the rights of copyright holders and benefiting society as a whole, it said.
IPO Director-General Hong Shu-min (洪淑敏) said the live broadcasting of a sports game at a bar would need to be authorized by whoever holds the rights to the broadcast under the amended act.
This is because the broadcast directly boosts the revenue-earning ability of the bar, she said, adding that TV shows or music played in a beauty salon or restaurant would not fall under the act because they are not central to the business.
In redefining the types of activities that require permission to show or play copyrighted material, the bill essentially protects the commercial interests of the copyright holder, Hong said.
Those who contravene the provisions of the act could face up to three years in prison and a fine of up to NT$750,000, she said.
The IPO said it would push for the bill’s passage by the Legislative Yuan to enhance the efficacy of copyright law in the digital age.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
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