Taipei prosecutors on Wednesday indicted an adult video vendor with contravening the Offenses Against Sexual Morality (妨害風化罪) for allegedly selling Japanese “hardcore” pornographic films.
The prosecutors charged the vendor, surnamed Chou (周), after a man surnamed Yang (楊) collected evidence by secretly filming Chou’s shop at Taipei’s Guanghua Market (光華商場), which is known for its computer and consumer electronics.
Yang filed a judicial complaint and named Chou and two Japanese men as defendants.
The Japanese men are executives from Japan’s Intellectual Property Promotion Association, which reportedly represents 240 Japanese adult video producers and distribution companies, and had filed litigation in Taiwan against sales of pirated videos.
Prosecutors said they would not press charges against the Japanese men, “because they owned the copyrights to the Japanese sex videos and it was Chou who was in the business of selling the videos in Taiwan.”
Chou denied selling any pirated copies, saying that he had an agreement with the association and sold only original films directly from the Japanese production companies.
Yang used to be an adult video vendor in Taipei and was in 2016 embroiled in copyright litigation along with Chou and other vendors in a case filed filed by association executives in Taiwan.
Yang reportedly still has a dispute with Chou and association executives stemming from the 2016 case, and filed a complaint saying that Chou was selling eight films with sadomasochistic content.
Prosecutors said that they deemed the films to contain “hardcore” elements and that Chou was selling materials that are obscene in nature, and charged him with “offenses against sexual morality.”
Those who sell “hardcore” videos could face criminal prosecution, as the films are defined as obscene materials or videos containing violent scenes, bestiality, sexual abuse, sadomasochism or group sex which have no artistic merit or any value for medical science or academic research, based on the Council of Grand Justices’ Interpretation No. 617, the prosecutors said.
Sales of “softcore” videos are permitted, as long as safety measures are in place to shield youngsters, as such films are deemed as separate from “hardcore” films and defined as providing sexual stimulation and pleasure, and would not be of a subjectively depraved nature which most viewers would find unacceptable or be repulsed by, the interpretation said.
In 2015, Japanese adult video production companies won what was considered a landmark ruling by the Taipei District Court, which provided copyright protection for the pornography industry.
The court said that adult videos are covered by copyright law, which protects all forms of human ideas and expressions, and should protect the spirit of creativity.
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