At a crowded night market in Taipei, vendors blare techno music or yell at the top of their lungs to draw attention to goods ranging from oyster omelettes to clothes to furry puppies.
But at one stand, a rich collection of pirated Hollywood blockbusters, Hong Kong pop music and Japanese soap operas lies unattended on a wooden table.
No vendor is in sight. A handwritten note asks buyers to drop their money in a white plastic box. A counterfeit disc costs as little as US$1.50, compared with US$9 for a copyrighted one.
The nation's CD pirates are slipping into the shadows, no longer daring to man their stalls, fearful of getting caught as pressure from the US forces authorities to step up their anti-piracy campaign.
"The government has finally recognized that this is a serious problem, but drastic and speedy measures must be taken to solve it," said Hank Kwuo (
The US will decide in coming months if the country should stay on its 301 "priority watch list" of the world's worst copyright offenders for a third year in a row.
A decision against Taiwan could lead to trade retaliation from its second biggest export market.
That danger does not worry the pirates, although the threat of prosecution has made them much less brazen than they used to be about selling their wares.
And the more careful strategy is working.
Exasperated prosecutors say to make a case, pirates must be caught red-handed and even then crafty vendors, many of whom have links with crime gangs, often escape the law.
"A man caught selling fake CDs in a night market managed to persuade all the other vendors on his street to testify in court that he was only a fruit seller," said one prosecutor who declined to be identified. "He was freed. It's very frustrating."
Stories like that do not help the central government as it tries to safeguard its precious political and trade ties with its most powerful ally, the US.
Washington considers Taiwan one of the top three sources of counterfeit compact discs, along with Brazil and Russia. The US entertainment industry and software companies say Taiwan pirates cost them US$756 million last year.
But that is of little concern to most residents, many of whom are happy to enjoy some bargains as the nation's once-sizzling economy crawls back from its worst recession ever in 2001.
It is little wonder nearly half of music and movie CDs sold in Taiwan are counterfeit when most blockbusters are available in markets long before cinemas that charge US$7 a ticket.
"Do you have any idea how expensive it is to take the whole family for a movie? Do you know how much a copyrighted CD costs?" said Chen Pei-sheng, a 36-year-old father of three, as he flicked through a stack of discs at a market.
"The economy is weak and I don't earn much. These suit me just fine," said the salesman, puffing on a cigarette as he picks up a copy of the latest James Bond thriller.
Pirate CD production has dealt a severe blow to the local entertainment industry. Losses recently forced a cinema in central Taiwan to shut down and others are on the brink of bankruptcy.
"The technology in Taiwan to make pirated optical discs is second to none in terms of quality and quantity," Kwuo said.
Hollywood's Motion Picture Association says piracy in Asia has evolved into highly organized mob operations.
Local authorities say they have yet to substantiate the claim of links to organized crime but say piracy is difficult enough to handle even without the crime gangs getting involved.
Justice Minister Chen Ding-nan (
"In the past we were poor but things are different now. With per capita income of over US$12,000, the government has no reason to tolerate piracy," Chen said.
"If people can't respect other people's intellectual property and copyright, they won't be accustomed to abiding by the law."
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors