Copyright Law is amended drastically to define production and sale of pirated CDs as crime indictable

   The Draft of Amendments to the Copyright Law was passed by the Legislative Yuan after final reading yesterday, which re-defines that manufacturing and selling pirated optical disks shall be crimes indictable and also raises the fine to be imposed on chronic offenders to 8 million NT dollars.  Meanwhile, according to the Draft of Amendment, any person who reproduces the work without intent to profit shall be punished with the imprisonment of not more than three years, or in addition to a fine of not more than NT$750,000, where the number of copies reproduced exceeds five and the total amount of infringement measures up to more than NT$30,000, and any one who distributes the reproduced copies shall be punished with imprisonment of not more than two years. 

   The Draft of Amendments include many new provisions, such as the added provisions defining that manufacturing and selling pirated optical disks shall be indictable crimes, temporary reproduction shall fall in the scope of reproduction, as well as provisions on fair use and the additions of the right of communication to the public and the right of distribution, and also is intended to strengthen the provisions governing the protection of economic right owners and the other agents. 

   Any person who infringes on the economic rights of another person by reproducing optical disks with the intent to profit shall be punished with imprisonment of not more than five years, detention, or in addition to a fine ranging from five hundred thousand NT dollars to five million NT dollars.  Where the person is a chronic offender, he shall be punished with imprisonment of not more than seven years and a fine raised to eight hundred thousand NT dollars to eight million dollars.  In the event that the gained profit exceeds the fine as prescribed, the fine shall be increased accordingly.  Further, the Draft of Amendments also excludes the original provisions defining that such infringement is only indictable upon complaint. 

   In order to prevent the distribution or sale of pirated work with the intent to profit, the Draft of Amendments also defines that any person, who, with intent to profit, infringes on the economic rights of another person by distributing the original of a work or a copy thereof by transfer of ownership shall be punished with imprisonment for not more than three years, detention, or in lieu thereof or in addition thereto a fine not more than seven hundred and fifty thousand NT dollars. 

   Where the number of copies reproduced exceeds five, or where the total amount of infringement calculated by the market value of lawful copies of the work at the time of seizure exceeds thirty thousand NT dollars, the person who infringes on the economic rights of another person by means of reproducing the work without intent to profit shall be punished with imprisonment of not more than three years, detention, or in lieu thereof or in addition thereto a fine of not more than seven hundred and fifty thousand NT dollars. 

   Where the number distributed exceeds five, or where the total amount of infringement calculated by the market value of lawful copies of the work at the time of seizure exceeds thirty thousand NT dollars, the person who, without intent to profit, infringes on the economic property rights of another person by distributing the original of a work or a copy thereof by transfer of ownership, or by publicly displaying or processing it with intent to distribute shall be punished with imprisonment of not more than two years, detention, or in lieu thereof or in addition thereto a fine of not more than five hundred thousand NT dollars.

   The Draft of Amendments defines that temporary reproduction falls in the scope of reproduction, and according to the provisions governing the right of communication to the public, any person, who put another person’s work, or in the form of MP3, on Internet for users’ access without the economic property right owner’s prior consent, will constitute an infringement on the economic property right of another person. 

   The Draft of Amendments also defines provisions related to fair use in network browsing not subject to the economic property right owner’s consent, namely where users’ temporary access of the contents in network browsing is the temporary reproduction inevitable in the process of networking transmission, such reproduction shall be regarded as a fair use free of criminal and civil liability.  In other words, simply browsing the contents of the web page or listening to music or watching movies will not constitute infringement on copyright. 

   Additionally, the Draft of Amendments also includes the right to claim remuneration for public performance.  The author of a sound recording shall be entitled to claim remuneration against the department store, mall, airplane and restaurant where his work is played.  Any person, who uses pirated programs for the purpose of business, shall bear civil and criminal liability.