Pirate copy shall be an offense subject to public prosecution in accordance with the draft of amendments to the Copyright Law presented by the Ministry of Justice

   The Ministry of Justice recently accomplished the draft of amendments to the Copyright Law. According to such draft, sales and pirate copy of the four kinds of video & audio CD works, including movies, records, game CDs and CDs as giveaways of books, are offenses subject to public prosecution. The aforesaid draft has been sent to the Intellectual Property Office for arrangement and it will be sent to the Executive Yuan for examination thereafter.

  “Reproduction” of copyrighted works by the students of colleges or universities who deem pirate copy of CDs as common practice is against the Copyright Law. Once the aforesaid draft is legislated, the official investigators and police will be entitled to investigate voluntarily. A person committing the aforesaid offenses will be subject to a prison term of not more than three years and may also be imposed of a fine of not more than NT$200,000.  Besides, if a person is involved in pirate copy of CDs and sale of such pirated CDs for profits, he shall assume criminal liability of a prison term of not more than five years but no less than six months, and may also be imposed of a fine of not more than NT$300,000.

Translated by Joanne Lue