Newsletter
COPYRIGHT ACT AMENDED
On 14 June 2007 the Legislative Yuan enacted amendments to the Copyright Act. The amendments are mainly directed against online service providers that profit by supplying com-puter programs or technologies (such as peer-to-peer networking) to allow Internet users to exchange musical, audiovisual, or other files online without lawful licensing. The amended Act expressly provides that such actions infringe against copyright, and makes them subject to criminal penalties including imprisonment for up to two years, in addition to liability for civil damages. The details of the amendments are as follows:
．New Article 87 Paragraph 1 Subparagraph 7
Copyright or plate right is infringed when a person or entity, acting for gain and without the consent or licensing of the owner of eco-nomic rights in a work, attempts to supply to members of the public computer programs or other technologies by which works may be publicly transmitted or reproduced, in order to enable members of the public to publicly transmit or reproduce others' works via com-puter networks, in a way that infringes the economic rights in such works.
．New Article 87 Paragraph 2
A person or entity that uses advertising or other active methods to induce, solicit, incite, or persuade members of the public to use computer programs or other technologies to infringe the economic rights in a copyright work shall be deemed to have attempted the acts referred to in Article 87 Paragraph 1 Subparagraph 7.
．New Article 93 Subparagraph 4
A person or entity that violates Article 87 Paragraph 1 Subparagraph 7 shall be subject to imprisonment or detention for not more than two years, or a fine not exceeding NT$500,000, or both.
．New Article 97-1
An enterprise that is convicted by the court of an offense under Article 91, Article 92, or Article 93 Subparagraph 4 of the Act, that was committed by means of public transmission, shall cease such acts immediately. If the en-terprise does not cease such acts, and the competent authority, after consulting experts, academics, and relevant businesses, deter-mines that major infringement is taking place, such as to seriously affect the rights and in-terests of owners of economic rights in copy-right works, the authority shall set a period of one month for correction. If the enterprise fails to correct its behavior within the period set, the authority may order the suspension or termination of the enterprise's business