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An amendment to the Copyright Law became effective on 14 November 2001. The amend-ment was made to comply with the new Admin-istrative Procedure Law, and the provisions of TRIPs for protection of computer programs.
Key features of the amendment are as follows:
A computer program can now enjoy the same copyright protection as a literary work. As a result, a computer program created by an in-dividual is protected during the life of the au-thor and fifty years after his death.
The competent authority in charge of the Copyright Law is now the Ministry of Eco-nomic Affairs rather than the Ministry of the Interior, and the cancellation of an adminis-trative decision referenced in the old law was amended as revocation of an administrative decision so as to be in line with the Adminis-trative Procedure Law.
A new paragraph is added to Article 37 to govern all musical works publicly performed by users of a computer karaoke. If a musical work is not a subject matter under the ad-ministration of a copyright intermediary or-ganization which is responsible for manage-ment of the rights to public performance, and the economic rights owner of that musical work is not a member of such organization, Article 92 regarding infringement of the right to public performance will not apply and the disputes should be resolved pursuant to civil, rather than criminal proceedings.
The amendment to Article 37 in the preceding paragraph further provides for the effect of a license of economic rights. If the license of economic rights has been notarized by a no-tary public, the rights granted to the licensee will not be affected by any subsequent as-signment or other license of same economic rights to a third party.
An exclusive licensee can now exercise his rights as an economic rights owner to the ex-tent of the licensed scope and to join any copyright intermediary organization.
The mechanism for official examination of fee ratio for use of a work changed by copyright intermediary organization is deleted because the fee ratio is deemed a private business matter and be determined by the market.
In light of impact of the Internet on intellectual property rights, the MOEA, on 12 October 2001, proposed further amendments to certain provi-sions of the Copyright Law. The draft amend-ments are now under review by the Executive Yuan and will be sent to the Legislative Yuan for further review and discussion. We will monitor the development and keep our readers informed.
