In a first for Taiwan, a 22-year-old vocational school student and blogger surnamed Sun (
Beginning in 2004, Sun uploaded 398 songs to his blog, hosted by the popular Wretch Web site, which offers blogging and photo album services and discussion forums. The music made the blog popular, but it also attracted the attention of the London-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
On Dec. 26 last year, police confiscated Sun's computer and the IFPI filed a lawsuit against Sun, who admitted to having uploaded music without permission and said he would accept legal responsibility. Sun shut down his blog immediately.
Taipei District Court said the action was a clear violation of Article 92 of the Copyright Act (
Sun may appeal the verdict.
Tseng Huang-lin (曾皇霖), the founder of Pixnet, a Web site offering services similar to Wretch, said copyright-protected materials should not be offered on blogs, adding that people had been accused of using copyright-protected materials without permission before.
Those cases did not involve the use of as many copyrighted materials, however, and apologies and immediate deletion of the materials were therefore sufficient for the violators to avoid a court appearance, Tseng said.
Bloggers who want music on their blogs can use online blog platforms such as Xuite, which offer music that has been licensed for online use, while some record companies promote music through their corporate Web sites by providing snippets of their latest releases, which users are allowed to link to.
Wang Yu-chi (
Unless the music is composed by the users themselves, however, any kind of usage requires prior permission from the copyright owner, Wang said.
Wang said that Internet users who purchase and download music online should pay attention to the contract rules to avoid violating the law.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
RSS