AIT/TIPO HOST SEMINAR ON STOPPING INTERNET PIRACY

UNCLAS TAIPEI 004059

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/RSP/TC AND EB/TPP/IPC, STATE PASS AIT/W AND
USTR, USTR FOR WINELAND AND WINTERS, USDOC FOR USPTO, USDOJ
FOR CCIPS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KIPR ECON TW
SUBJECT: AIT/TIPO HOST SEMINAR ON STOPPING INTERNET PIRACY


1. AIT and the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO)
jointly organized a two-day seminar for 88 judges,
prosecutors, TIPO staff, and law-enforcement personnel on
"Combating Internet Piracy." The seminar was funded by
donations from the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA),the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA),the
Business Software Association (BSA),and the Pharmaceutical
Research Manufacturers Association (PhRMA.) These four
organizations also provided speakers from their associations
or member companies to present industry views to
participants. In addition, speakers from the Department of
Justice, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the Bronx
District Attorney's Office, the Taiwan National Police IPR
Squadron, and TIPO provided law enforcement and government
views on the most effective means of stopping internet
pirates. In an informal survey, participants rated all of
the presentations as very useful, but many commented that
they would have like to have heard more concrete examples of
case procedure, and better explanations of concrete steps,
including the freezing of assets, that could be used to
pursue counterfeiters.


2. Taiwan participants included four judges, 24 prosecutors,
12 investigators from the Criminal Investigation Bureau, 11
members of the IPR Police Special Task Force, 18 agents from
the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau, five staff
members from the Board of Foreign Trade, and 14 TIPO
employees. In addition, staff of participating rightsholders
groups also attended the event. Speakers included: Jeremy
Banks, Vice President, Internet Anti-piracy Division, the
International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI),
London; Lauri Rechardt, Legal Office, IFPI, London; Donald
Shruhan, Senior Regional Director, Asia-Pacific, Pfizer;
Brian Williams, Senior Regional Compliance Manager,
Microsoft; James Chan, Senior Internet Manager, Greater Asia,
MPA; Commander Liao Jiang-gao, Taiwan National Police, IPR
Protection Corps.; Margaret Chen, Director of Copyright,
TIPO; Timothy Browning, USPTO; John Zacharia, Computer Crime
and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS),USDOJ; and Richard
Baker, Chief, Economic Crimes office, Bronx District
Attorney. Presentations discussed sales of counterfeit
pharmaceuticals on the internet, industry and government
cooperation, combating illegal Peer-to-Peer (P2P) activities,
US procedures for investigating internet piracy and the
latest trends in internet piracy enforcement and prosecution.


3. Comment: The timing of this seminar was particularly
appropriate, given the recent Taipei court decision finding
Taiwan P2P file sharing service Kuro to be guilty of
copyright infringement. The solid attendance and attentive
questioning by participants at this seminar underscores the
interest by Taiwan authorities of finding a way to better
address the international problem of internet piracy.
However, participants were stumped by questions on how they
could cooperate internationally. While understanding the
cross-border nature of IP crimes, law enforcement personnel
are stymied in their efforts to cooperate with other
jurisdictions by Taiwan's lack of official relationships and
continuous Chinese efforts to block contacts with Taiwan.
End Comment.
PAAL