Amendments to the Copyright Act of Taiwan
As part of the efforts to comply with the regulations of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), to which Taiwan has applied recently, Taiwan’s government has reviewed and revised its intellectual property laws, including the Copyright Act. Not just to comply but the movement by Taiwan is also viewed by international organizations as Taiwan’s attempt to facilitate future CPTPP negotiations.
Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore, and Vietnam signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Taiwan applied to join the CPTPP on September 22, 2021. On April 15, 2022, the amendments to the Copyright Act of Taiwan were approved.
This change to the Copyright Act includes several key points. This article will brief about 3 notable and impactable changes that are: serious infringement actions, optical disc piracy, and the facilitation of online teaching.
Serious infringement actions
One of the most significant changes of the amendments to the Copyright Act of Taiwan is that instances of illegal digital piracy, distribution, and public transmission that constitute serious infringement are now indictable without the need for complaints as before.
The serious infringement actions are determined by the following criteria:
- Infringement of work that is not freely provided by the owner;
- 100% reproduction in their original form;
- Infringement actions cause damages to the related parties exceeding NT$1 million (US$33,400).
Optical disc piracy
Optical disc piracy is no longer considered to be a major source of infringement. Therefore, with the new amendments, optical disc piracy will revert to general reproduction and distribution liabilities.
As a result, provisions that increased penalties for the reproduction and distribution of pirated optical discs, as well as confiscation and forfeiture of such discs, have been repealed.
Facilitation of online teaching
As Covid-19 has been ravaging the world in general and Taiwan, in particular, for over 2 years, the Taiwanese Government has established special regulations to ease the burden of the people as well as make sure the people got access to basic needs such as education.
Therefore, the amendments to the Copyright Act of Taiwan in July 2022 focus on access to online learning from different areas and virtual classrooms that don’t need physical contact as before, the contents online might be restricted heavily and teachers have to worry that suddenly, they might get labeled as copyright infringers for teaching their students with online contents.
To that end, the amendments include rules for fair use of copyrighted works, allowing teachers to provide classroom instruction without fear of infringement. In addition, the amendment also includes provisions that served as safety breaks. Specifically, to avoid excessive infringement of copyright, schools that applied online learning and teaching must take reasonable technical measures to prevent students who are not enrolled in the course from accessing the courses.
There are other notes to online education using copyright works such as although non-profit remote education may use copyrighted works, they still must pay compensation or remuneration for the authorized use of copyrighted works.
*** Other Articles***
– You could visit here to see Procedure of Taiwan Trademark Registration.
– You could visit here to check the required documents for filing trademark in Taiwan.
– You could check trademark fee in Taiwan here.
– You could also read 04 Often Questions About Filing Trademark In Taiwan here.
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