Taiwan improves Copyright Protection

The Bills of Copyright Act and Copyright Intermediary Organization Act completed third reading at the Legislative Yuan on January 12, 2010, and has been promulgated by the President on February 10, 2010. Highlights of these two bills are as follows:

1. Copyright Act

The provisions of Chapter VII (criminal penalty) do not apply in the following circumstances except for works subject to the management of copyright collective management organizations:
1) Exploitation of digitized karaoke machines or jukeboxes which contain licensed duplication(s) of music works for public performance;
2) Rebroadcasting works of an original broadcast;
3) Communicating the sounds or images of an original broadcast to the public with loudspeaker or other equipment;
4) Communicating the works to the public through public broadcasting or simultaneous public transmission of advertisement, by a broadcaster, within which such works have been reproduced under authorization.

2. Copyright Intermediary Organization Act

1) The title of the Act has been changed from “Copyright Intermediary Organization Act” to “Copyright Collective Management Organization Act”.
2) The new system of “joint tariff” and “one-stop shop”: with respect to specified types of exploitation and relevant CMOs which designated by TIPO, multiple CMOs should set up a “joint tariff” and determine one CMO among them to collect royalty from users. The above provision shall be implemented two years after promulgation of the amendments to this Act. (Art.3 and 30)
3) The revision of tariff review system: (Art.24 to 26)
a. TIPO won’t review every tariff before it is in effect, and only review tariffs which are in dispute and rose by relevant users,
b. During the period of tariff review, users could pay interim payment in order to lawfully use works managed by a CMO.
4) Restricting criminal actions of CMOs: users are exempt from criminal responsibility in the following situation,
a. In a specific type of exploitation which a CMO has not set up a tariff, a user may request the CMO to do so. Before such tariff being set up, user’s exploitation is exempt from criminal responsibility. (Art. 24, para. 7)
b. During the period of tariff review, user who paid interim payment is exempt from civil and criminal responsibility of copyright infringement. (Art. 26, para. 4)

Press Release, Intellectual Property Office, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan, 24.03.2010

Die Presseabteilung der Taipeh Vertretung mit Sitz in Berlin bietet folgende Dienstleistungen an: Erläuterung der Politik und der Entwicklung der Republik China (Taiwan), Verbreitung von Stellungnahmen und Pressemitteilungen von taiwanischer Seite sowie Beantwortung von Fragen über das Land;
Angebot von Informationsmaterial über Taiwan in deutscher, englischer, und chinesischer Sprache (Broschüren, Filme, Videos, DVDs, Diafilme, CDs);
Anlaufstelle für deutsche Medienvertreter, Angebot von Informationsreisen nach Taiwan für deutsche Journalisten;
Organisation von Veranstaltungen mit dem Ziel, Kontakte zwischen Deutschland und Taiwan zu vertiefen (Vorträge, Seminare, Ausstellungen, Filmfestivals etc.);
Sonstige Öffentlichkeitsarbeit

Presseabteilung Taipeh Vertretung
Markgrafenstr. 35
10117 Berlin

This release was published on openPR.