Taiwan Seeks to Combat Illegal FileSharing with New Amendment of the Copyright Act

[J.Stash]

Taiwan Seeks to Combat Illegal FileSharing with New Amendment of the Copyright Act

The Taiwan government has announced plans for amending the Copyright Act as a measure to eradicate digital piracy by blocking BitTorrent, FTP any other sites that facilitate “flagrant copyright violation”

According to IPO Director-General Wang Mei-hwa, after the amending of the law, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs will ask local ISPs to block access to identified IP addresses and domain names.

The websites that are seen as a clear threat to copyright and their owners are those which “engage exclusively in copyright infringement” or “on which acts of copyright violation are evident,” explained Wang.

Using the precedent of such legislation already implemented in the US, UK, Spain, South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia, Wang said Taiwan will not be the first country to enforce such a measure against illegal filesharing.

Wang also assured fans of the popular China-based website www.pps.tv that the latter will not be subjected to this blocking since the site has increased considerably its legitimate content.

While a timetable for the proposed legislation was not yet specified, it seems that prior to draft amendment being introduced public hearings will be held.