Taiwan & USA negotiated to sign FTA; control of internet piracy to be focus of negotiations

The International Intellectual Property Alliance (“IIPA”) suggested the International Trade Centre (“ITC”) that it request, during entering into free trade agreements with other countries, counterpart countries to provide copyright protection superior than that provided by the WTO, enact relevant rules concerning internet communication of works and take effective measures to control internet piracy of digital works.

The rules about Internet included in the draft of amendments to the Copyright Law presented by the Executive Yuan are related to “temporary reproduction,” “right of Internet communication to the public,” and “right of making available to the public,” etc. In this connection, service providers considered that the Internet would be a crucial sales channel of the future world, and if over strict restrictions of copyright are imposed on the Internet, service providers and users may violate the law inadvertently and even be engaged in criminal suits. This trend will certainly affect the digital industry of Taiwan and the development of on-line channels. However, Tsai Lien-Sheng, the Director General of the Intellectual Property Office responded that collocating measures for the scope of reasonable use would be established in connection with the rules about Internet such as temporary reproduction so that interference in industrial development as worried by the service providers will not occur.   

Translated by Joanne Lue