Newsletter
COPYRIGHT PROTECTION AF-TER TAIWAN'S WTO ENTRY
After 12 years of negotiations, the World Trade Organization (WTO) finally approved Taiwan's membership application on 11 November 2001, and formal accession took place on 1 January 2002. As a result, two major changes in the Copyright Law took effect: copyright protection is expanded to cover the future works of nation-als of all WTO members; and works already completed that were not protected under the Copyright Law (as variously amended) before WTO entry are also protected, on condition that the periods of protection of economic rights have not yet expired, under both the Copyright Law and the laws of the country of origin of the work. The period of protection of economic rights ex-tens to 50 years after the death of the author, or 50 years after first publication of the work.
However, where a work not protected before WTO accession acquires protection on accession, the Copyright Law provides for a two-year tran-sitional period in which continued exploitation of the work will not infringe copyright. In other words, during the two years after Taiwan's WTO accession, a person who before accession was already exploiting such a work, or had already made major investments in preparation to exploit such a work, may continue to exploit it, without the holder of economic rights in the work being able to bring civil or criminal action against him. If the exploited work is a derivative work of a previously unprotected work, was completed before WTO entry, and already enjoyed copy-right protection under the Copyright Law, its exploitation may continue during the two years following accession. But if such exploitation continues after the two-year period, the exploiter must then pay compensation to the holder of economic rights in the original work.