District Court Found ezPeer Not Guilty of Providing P2P File Sharing Platform.　IFPI Determined to Appeal against the Verdict.

For the charge against ezPeer brought by International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for ezPeer’s violation of the Copyright Law, Shilin District Court on June 30, 2005 ruled ezPeer, a local P2P operator, and its responsible person not guilty of “reproducing or publicly transmitting copyrighted work” as defined in the Copyright Law in Taiwan. The presiding judge emphasized that this ruling only aimed at whether ezPeer constituted an offense set forth in the Criminal Code in Taiwan instead of its civil infringement.

 

The P2P file sharing platform provided on the Internet by the defendant, ezPeer enables the users of ezPeer software to go online and connect directly to other people’s home PCs and then make and pass back and forth the copies of their files without going through the server.

 

IPO clarified that this non-guilty verdict was only directed at ezPeer and its representative, Wu Yi-Da (吳怡達) for providing file-swapping software and website operation, while it is clearly stated in the verdict that users publicly transmit and reproduce copyrighted materials with P2P may constitute copyright infringement. In this regard, IPO urged the public not to misinterpret the verdict as being legal to use P2P to transmit and reproduce copyright materials (including music, sound recordings, movies, writings).

 

The three major music right-holder associations, IFPI, MUST (Music Copyright Intermediary Society of Chinese Taipei), and MPA (Music Publishers Association of Chinese Taipei), reiterated their determination to appeal and to battle against P2P users so as to fight for justice for music creators. (2005.7)

CYJ/CCS