Private Server Provider Found Not in Violation of Copyright.

NC Taiwan Co., Ltd., the authorized distributor of the well-known online game, “Lineage II” (hereinafter “NC Taiwan”) pressed charges against three co-offenders for violating the Taiwan Copyright Act by assisting a private server provider in collecting service charges.  The three offenders were found guilty in the first instance but the Taiwan IP Court reversed their conviction in the second instance on the ground that the relevant private server provider did not modify nor reproduce the creation of the game in dispute.  [Taiwan IP Court’s criminal judgment under docket 101-Xing-Zhi-Shang-Su No. 42 (20130403)]

The number of online game players in Taiwan has reached around 5 million and the total revenue coming from the online game sector exceeds over TWD 20 billion.  Such huge revenue triggers private server providers’ intention to carve out their shares therefrom by setting up private servers, modifying user’s login path, and offering game playing and virtual items purchase at lower price than that of the official game version.  Private server is a server machine that is privately set up and owned by individuals as opposed to a legitimate one.  It specifically refers to the online game servers privately reimplemented by private server providers, typically a clone of proprietary gaming version owned by the official genuine gaming company, in which way private server providers have being snatching a lot of gaming customers from the legitimate server hosted by the official game’s publisher. 

According to the judgment rendered in the first instance, a man surnamed Guo set up a private server for “Lineage II” in China for business and the above-mentioned three offenders assisted Guo in such activity, for which the three offenders were charged with the offense of violating Taiwan Copyright Act.  Taichung District Court sentenced each of the three offenders to 4 months in prison in January 2012 and Guo is still put on the wanted list. 

The three offenders took an appeal from the Taichung District Court judgment by arguing that they simply borrowed gaming accounts but did not set up a private server nor have knowledge of their violation of the Copyright Act.  The IP Court found the said three offenders not guilty on the grounds that the game provided by the said private server is identical with that of the official version and its content is not a reproduced one of the original game and that change of IP address does not amount to change of creation.  In addition, IP address is not an eligible subject matter for Copyright Act protection.  The IP Court judgment is appealable.  (2013.04)
/CCS