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COPYRIGHT ACT UNDER AMENDMENT

Cathy C. W. Ting

In response to the widespread and growing trend of copyright infringement facilitated by the convenience and speed of online data reproduction and transmission technologies, and in view of the fact that a variety of infringing acts are performed by means of services provided by Internet Service Providers (ISPs), the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), after several years of study and numerous public hearings, has put forward a draft of proposed amendments to the Copyright Act.

The amendments seek to clarify the limits of an ISP's liability, to create an effective notification and data takedown mechanism between rights holders and ISPs, and to provide ISPs with a "safe harbor" in terms of their liability. That is to say, the scope within which an ISP may disclaim liability if a service user infringes on another's copyright or plate right by means of a service provided by the ISP, and the conditions for such a disclaimer, are to be expressly clarified in the Act.

The Executive Yuan approved the draft amendments on 25 September, and on October 1 submitted them to the Legislative Yuan for scrutiny. The main points of the proposed amendments are as follows:

  • Definitions of Internet Service Providers are introduced (Article 3 Paragraph 1, new Subparagraph 19).

  • General criteria are defined for ISPs of all categories to qualify for exemption from civil liability under the new Chapter 6-1 (new Article 90-4).

  • Procedures are defined for various categories of ISP, which if properly complied with will exempt an ISP from liability for damages for infringement of another's copyright or plate right by a service user (new Articles 90-5 to 90-8).

  • Matters are defined for compliance by an ISP that provides data storage services, when performing data restoration procedures (new Article 90-9).

  • An ISP that duly removes data suspected of infringing on copyright or plate right bears no liability for damages toward the service user (new Article 90-10).

  • If an untruthful notification or restoration notice causes harm to another person or entity, the issuer is liable for damages in respect of the harm so caused (new Article 90-11).

  • The IPO is empowered to prescribe detailed rules for the enforcement of the above additional articles (new Article 90-12).

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