IP Court Found ezPeer’s Responsible Person Not Guilty.

Taiwan IP Court acquitted Weber Wu, online peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing operator of ezPeer, of the charges of unauthorized reproduction and public transmission as defined by the Taiwan Copyright Act, after this case was remanded thereto. 

The key issue of this case is whether the P2P operator should bear criminal liability in an infringement occurrence, and the IP Court’s re-decision shows that the operator would be free from criminal liability as long as it stays in media neutral position. 

According to the reasoning of IP Court re-decision, P2P software and platform provide a channel or a medium of data transmission, and thus is supposed to be operated in accordance with medium-neutral policy.  As a tool that helps people commute and share information, the providers of emerging technology must be able to develop and build up more novel technologies and to present more advanced technical tools to facilitate the public’s use if the providers could be not so vulnerable to infringement charges. 

The IP Court held that Weber Wu’s provision of a tool that is likely to infringe upon copyright does not serve as sufficient reason to impose criminal liability on him.  A technology provider’s liability in such cases should be determined case by case to clarify if such a provider has transgressed the neutral position.

Shihlin District Court passed a not guilty judgment for Weber Wu on June 30, 2005.  The prosecutor dissatisfied with this judgment and took an appeal to the IP Court.  The IP Court dismissed the appeal by a judgment entered by July 23 on the ground that the prosecution failed to substantiate Wu’s is among accomplice relationship with the other defendants for being engaged in infringement (divided into another case for separate trial).  (2009.08)
/CCS