Taiwan to Amend Its Copyright Law

The Taiwan authorities are planning to amend their copyright legislation in order to fight digital piracy. They are going to block BitTorrent, FTP and various portals which facilitate copyright infringement.

The Intellectual Property Office under the Ministry of Economic Affairs explained that after the amending of the law local Internet service providers will be required to block access to identified IP addresses and domain names. Online services are considered a clear threat to copyright. Consequently, their operators are people who engage exclusively in copyright violation or whose acts of copyright infringement are evident.

Taiwan authorities believe that using the precedent of the law which is already enforced in the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia, they won’t be the first state to enforce such regime against unauthorized file-sharing. In addition, the Intellectual Property Office assured fans of the popular Chinese service PPS??? - PPS? that it won’t be subjected to this blocking since the website has increased significantly its legal content.

According to media reports, a timetable for the proposed law wasn’t yet specified, but it is likely that prior to introduction of a draft amendment the public hearings will be held.