4-Month Prison Sentence Imposed for Unauthorized Music Downloading and Uploading to Personal Blogs.

A woman surnamed Liu, who was caught downloading 116 music videos from YouTube by the police on cyber patrol, was referred to prosecution for copyright infringement under Taiwan Copyright Act.  The judge sentenced Liu to 4 months in prison, which may be commuted to a fine payment of TWD120,000; that is to say, every piece of music Liu has downloaded costs her more than TWD1 thousand in average (Summary criminal judgment entered by Hsinchu District Court under docket (100) Shen-Zhi-Jian No. 8; date of entry of judgment:  18 July 2011).

Liu had no idea that it is illegal to download from YouTube and then upload music files to a personal blog, said Liu to the judge.  Liu truly repented her act.  For her, the act of downloading free music files ends up a loss instead of gain.

According to the judge, Liu has caused serious damage to record companies by broadcasting or providing for web users’ viewing a sizable number of songs in their whole pieces on her own personal blog, which actually goes beyond the scope of fair use, even though Liu alleged that she downloaded those songs for personal appreciation only.  (2011.07)
/CCS