Two-Year Transitional Period of Copyright Law Will Soon Expire.　Retroactive Protection Will Take Effect on July 11.

Various classic foreign films, Japanese songs, foreign language textbooks, etc. shall not be sold in Taiwan since July 11 without the copyright holder’s authorization; civil and criminal liabilities will be imposed in case of failure to comply with the above provision. Intellectual Property Office (IPO) indicates that, according to Article 106ter of the Copyright Law, the two-and-a-half years transitional period will soon come to an end, and provisions regarding copyright retroactive protection will take effect accordingly since July 11. Further, due to Taiwan’s entry into “World Trade Organization” (WTO), an exploiter shall not further sell the copies of relevant copyrighted works protected under retroactive protection without the copyright holder’s authorization.

 

Any person who sells the unlicensed disc products shall be liable for civil compensation and sentenced to criminal punishment. IPO expresses that, according to Article 100 of the Copyright Law, this offense is not “actionable only upon complaint”; police authorities shall directly conduct inspection and seizure and the prosecutor can bring an indictment as well even without economic rights holder’s or the exclusive licensee’s complaint.

 

Unauthorized sale of works protected under retroactive protection and of “copies onto forms other than discs”, such as books, shall involve civil compensation liability and criminal punishment pursuant to the law; provided, this provision shall not apply to “used books”. IPO states that since “used books” represents a way the book owner disposes of his personal property, and that is greatly different from the way of dealing with the exploiting acts of publishing, releasing, performing, and adapting unlicensed works as provided in International Covenant. Thus, IPO holds that the provision of “retroactive protection” of the Copyright Law shall not apply to “used books stores”. In regard to the criminal punishment, the acts of “sale in process”, “completion of sale”, “delivery”, and “available to the public” before sale (such as, public display) shall be punished in accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 91bis of the Copyright Law. Further, the act of “possessing” shall also be punished pursuant to Subparagraph 2, Paragraph 1, of Article 93 of the same Law. (2004.7)

CYJ/CCS