Government officials yesterday threw their support behind students who had their computers seized last week for allegedly downloading illegal MP3 music files.
Minister of Education Ovid Tzeng (
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
A police search of the dorm rooms of 14 students at National Chengkung University (
"Any action of prosecutors and the police should be taken with prudence and kept within limits with respect to academic freedom and the autonomy of universities," Tzeng said.
"I will absolutely fight for the rights of students regarding the incident of the police searching the Chengkung student dorm," Tzeng added. "I will ask attorneys to help the students settle any legal disputes stemming from this incident."
Tzeng said the ministry hopes the public will have access to and enjoy sharing information on the Web as long as copyrights are respected.
"Current regulations are hardly sufficient, considering what is needed in these `E-times.' We need to cope with disputes regarding the use of Internet resources with more patience and intelligence," the minister said.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an umbrella group representing the record industry in Taiwan, also seems to have softened its attitude toward the students as more and more advocates of students' rights have spoken up in recent days.
"Only when we know whether the downloaded files are the property of our member record labels will we decide whether we'll take any action," Robin Lee (李瑞斌), IFPI secretary-general, said yesterday.
Vice Minister of Education Fan Sun-lu (
Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (
Chen also said that the ministry's policy was to give priority to serious "black gold" crimes in its crackdown on intellectual property rights violations, saying he never asked prosecutors to target university students in the investigation.
According to ministry guidelines issued in November, when prosecutors plan to conduct search and seizure raids at "special places," they have to report to their divisional head and prosecutor general. The latter will then report to his or her superior prosecutors' office.
The "special places" listed in the guidelines include government departments, secret military sites, the Legislative Yuan, county and city councils, institutions of higher education and offices of the media.
Also See Editorial Inside
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
‘UNWAVERING FRIENDSHIP’: A representative of a Japanese group that co-organized a memorial, said he hopes Japanese never forget Taiwan’s kindness President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday marked the 15th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, urging continued cooperation between Taiwan and Japan on disaster prevention and humanitarian assistance. Lai wrote on social media that Taiwan and Japan have always helped each other in the aftermath of major disasters. The magnitude 9 earthquake struck northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering a massive tsunami that claimed more than 19,000 lives, according to data from Japanese authorities. Following the disaster, Taiwan donated more than US$240 million in aid, making it one of the largest contributors of financial assistance to Japan. In addition to cash donations and
RSS