The High Court on Friday in a final ruling acquitted ultramarathon runner Kevin Lin (林義傑) and five others in a case in which they were accused of profiteering through a copyright trolling operation.
Lin, the founder of Truth Intellectual Property Consultation Co, was accused in 2022 of contravening the Attorney Regulation Act (律師法) and Article 157 of the Criminal Code, as well as profiteering from settlements reached in litigations against Internet users who downloaded pirated versions of films and videos.
The indictment by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that the company allegedly collaborated with three lawyers to obtain authorization to pursue legal action for intellectual property (IP) theft and infringement, sued infringers, and settled out of court for an unspecified sum.
Photo: Liang Wei-ming, Taipei Times
The company allegedly approached Vie Vision Pictures Co and Applause Entertainment, offering its services to identify and address IP theft and infringement cases, and was successful in securing both companies as clients, the indictment said.
According to the contracts, Truth Consultation would cover all expenses incurred during the investigation, and 20 percent of the out-of-court settlement fees would be allocated to Vie Vision or Applause Entertainment, while Truth Consultation would retain 80 percent.
The prosecutors said that company employees surnamed Hsu (許) and Chiu (邱) used Bittorrent to obtain the films and posed as “seeders” to track downloaders, whose Internet protocol addresses were recorded.
They sent notices to the addresses of offenders informing them of legal infringement and subsequently settling out of court.
During the trial, Lin denied guilt and cited legal precedents where similar defendants had been ruled not guilty, questioning the factual basis of the prosecutors’ indictment.
The first court of appeal had ruled Lin guilty, sentencing him to 10 months of prison, which could be commuted to a fine of NT$300,000.
The High Court said that Vie Vision and Applause Entertainment had signed an exclusive legal contract with Truth Consultation, and that these actions were not acts of collusion.
Truth Consultation has acted in accordance with Paragraph 4, Article 37 of the Copyright Act (著作權法), and all litigation raised by the company was in its own name, per the exclusive legal contracts, and they were not litigating on behalf of others, it said.
Lin is the owner of the company, but all the legal actions were drafted and conducted by Cheng Yuan-hsiang (鄭遠翔), who holds a valid lawyer permit, and therefore, neither Lin nor Cheng contravened the Attorney Regulation Act, it said in the ruling.
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