Woman ordered to pay damages to Microsoft for illegally reproducing computer software

A woman surnamed Lin (hereinafter “Lin”), engaged in the business of selling and repairing computers, was found installing pirated Windows 7, Windows XP and other software for customers to promote computer hardware equipment.  This matter came to Microsoft’s knowledge, for which Microsoft sent their people to disguise as customers buying computers from Lin in March and September 2015, and they confirmed that the computers sold by Lin were indeed installed with pirated software and thus called the police for filing a complaint to seek damages against Lin. 

Here is a summary of the court judgment on this matter.  According to the 1st paragraph of Article 9 of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and also Article 3 of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, nationals of one of the countries of the Union should be eligible for copyright protection in Taiwan.  The US is a member country of the WTO and thus the computer program of the US-based Microsoft should be eligible for Taiwan’s copyright protection in accordance with the 2nd subparagraph of Article 4 of the Taiwan Copyright Act.  By reproducing Microsoft’s software without Microsoft’s authorization, Lin has infringed upon Microsoft’s economic rights and should be sentenced to six-month jail term and was put on probation for two years.  For the civil aspects of this case, in terms of the number of seized pirated disks, time period of Lin’s illegal activity, the sales amount involved, the judge awarded damages to Microsoft in the amount of TWD270,000 and more and ordered that Lin should run a notice of the court judgment in local newspapers.  This case is appealable.  (March 2016)
/CCS