Proposed Amendment to Copyright Act to Increase Responsibility on P2P Operators

A recent proposal to amend Taiwan’s Copyright Act which if passed would increase the responsibility on P2P operators such as MSN Messenger to ensure there is no unauthorized content being exchanged via their network. According to the proposed amendment, if there is unauthorized content exchanged by the users of the P2P network, the P2P operator, even though they might have merely provided a technology or computer program to facilitate the transmission of content by the public on the internet, can face criminal sanctions. This proposed amendment has sparked an outcry from the legal community that the proposed law may become an obstacle to the development of technology because its language unduly expands the scope of the current theories of criminal liability. This proposed amendment has been characterized by some as the first attempt in the world to criminalize what has been known as a civil wrong of contributory infringement of copyright. Some say the legislative body should not pass this proposed amendment and claim the market itself would work to resolve the P2P related disputes.