Newsletter
PROGRESS OF COPYRIGHT LAW AMENDMENTS
Following the 1998 and 2001 amendments to the Copyright Law, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has now prepared draft amendments to various articles of the law to take account of is-sues arising out of the development of digital information technology and the Internet. On 4 July, the IPO presented its draft to the Executive Yuan for consideration. The main points are as follows:
New provisions are proposed whereby (1) authors enjoy the right of public performance, including the right of interactive broadcast and the right to communicate a work to the public; and (2) performers and sound recording pro-ducers enjoy the right to communicate their performances or recordings to the public. It is also proposed to amend the definition of "public performance" in the existing Article 3 Paragraph 1 Item 9 of the law to bring it into line with the definition of "broadcasting" in Article 11 bis of the Berne Convention.
1.In the digital and Internet environment, copyright holders often seek to protect their rights by using technological measures to prevent illegal use of their works. Any person who provides means to circumvent such technological protection measures, although not directly committing an act of copyright infringement, in effect encour-ages or assists copyright infringement. Therefore the proposed amendments pro-vide for appropriate regulation and for legal remedies.
2.In a digital environment, a copyright holder may attach electronic rights management information to a work. Deleting or altering such information, or disseminating such a work in the knowledge that such informa-tion has been deleted or altered, may cause serious loss to the rights holder. Therefore related new provisions are proposed to protect copyright holders' interests.
To enable the public at large to clearly under-stand the scope of reasonable use, and to avoid unintended infringement of economic rights in works, an amendment is proposed whereby parties and interested persons may negotiate to agree a frame work of reference for the rea-sonable use of works. Where negotiation is unsuccessful, parties may consult the copy-rights authority for its opinion.
Article 4 Paragraph 1 of the Trust Law pro-vides that here a property right subject to mandatory registration is placed in trust, the fact of such entrustment may not be used as a defense against a third party unless the en-trustment is registered. The existing Article 79 of the Copyright Law requires registration in order to acquire plate rights, but does not require registration of the assignment or en-trustment of plate rights. To bring the two laws into line, a new provision is proposed requiring registration of the assignment or entrustment of plate rights.
New provisions are proposed whereby after a court has confirmed the outcome of concilia-tion in a copyright or plate right dispute, the parties may not file further litigation, criminal complaints, or private prosecutions, and the conciliation decision will have the same force as a confirmed civil court judgment.
To enable copyright holders whose rights are infringed to obtain adequate civil damages, it is proposed to increase the maximum level of damages that the courts may award. The maximum damages for general infringement will be NT$1 million, and those for intentional or severe infringement, NT$5 million. It is also proposed to amend the provisions on criminal liability for copyright infringement. Commercial-scale infringement of another economic rights in a work will attract criminal penalties whether or not the infringer intended to profit from the infringement. Infringement with the intent of profit will be made prose-cutable without a complaint being filed. The option of detention will be introduced in ad-dition to imprisonment and fines, and the level of fines will be increased. (Detention is a lesser custodial sentence that does not affect the sentencing of repeat offences, and may be reduced to a warning.)