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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 TAIPEI 001655 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
 
STATE PLEASE PASS USTR 
STATE FOR EAP/RSP/TC, EAP/EP 
USTR FOR RAGLAND AND WINELAND 
USDOC FOR 4430/ITA/MAC/AP/OPB/TAIWAN 
USDOC FOR USPTO GIN, BROWNING, AND SNYDOR 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON KIPR ETRD PGOV TW
SUBJECT:  Taiwan: Campus IPR Enforcement Improves, but Piracy 
Continues 
 
REFTEL: 
 
A) 2001 Taipei 1681 
B) 2004 Taipei 533 
C) 2006 Taipei 562 
D) 2006 Taipei 4007 
E) 2004 Taipei 3953 
F) 2007 Taipei 2529 
G) 2007 Taipei 2595 
H) Taipei 8 
I) Taipei 49 
J) Taipei 1318 
K)  Taipei 745 
L) 2007 Taipei 2005 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. (SBU) Spurred by U.S. encouragement, the Taiwan Ministry of 
Education (MOE) made combatting campus intellectual property rights 
(IPR) violations a priority over the past 12 months, and Taiwan 
universities' enforcement activities have increased. Over the Plan's 
second six months, the Plan's requirements and incentives spurred 
schools to increase enforcement efforts, and the MOE is helping 
schools to implement best practices across Taiwan.    Students 
continue to use TANet for unauthorized file sharing and other 
digital piracy, but rights holders confirm cooperation with the MOE 
improved over the second six months of the plan, and that schools 
are tracking and punishing violations.  Industry, however, still 
reports widespread use of pirated or unlicensed software. On-campus 
textbook copying and other physical infringement appear to have 
continued their decade-long decline due to heightened awareness and 
enforcement, but rights holders report continuing off-campus piracy. 
End summary. 
 
Background 
---------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Taiwan's teachers and administrators have traditionally 
viewed campuses as havens from normal law enforcement.  Universities 
rarely refer students to the police or prosecutors' offices for 
non-violent crimes, including IPR violations, and prosecutors are 
wary of taking action to address such problems.  The last major 
crack-down on campus piracy--an attempt in 2001 by the Tainan 
District Prosecutors Office to prosecute 14 students at national 
Chengkung University for sharing MP3 files (ref A)--set off a strong 
reaction from administrators, students, and the Taiwan public and 
led to the reassignment of the prosecutors involved. Unauthorized 
textbook copying and digital piracy, therefore, remain common on 
Taiwan's campuses (refs B, C, D, and E). 
 
¶3. (SBU)  After an initial suggestion from the United States led to 
several rounds of consultations with campus representatives, the 
Ministry of Education (MOE) began implementing the Campus IP Action 
Plan in November 2007 (ref F).  The Action Plan did not impose new 
requirements on students--even the MOE's original proposal to 
require that all university students take a short "IPR Knowledge 
Test" before getting access to campus libraries or computer networks 
was dropped in the face of university complaints--but instead 
reflected the MOE's belief that the best way to reduce illegal 
copying and downloads is by encouraging schools to follow the best 
practices in the Taiwan university community (ref F). Under the 
Plan, the MOE publicly grades each university's performance on 
numerous IPR-protection metrics in order to promote best practices, 
as well as to shame less successful schools into taking more 
action. 
 
Action Plan Leads to Enforcement 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) The MOE's initial efforts under the Action Plan spurred 
universities to deal more seriously with IPR (ref G), and this 
progress continued over the Plan's second six months.   Although 
some administrators told us last year the Plan had not changed the 
way they protect IPR on campus, over the past six months, 
administrators from the dozen schools econoff has recently visited 
have told us their schools have stepped up efforts in response to 
the plan.  On October 16, Yang Chi-jin, Southern Taiwan University 
of Technology Library Director Yang Chi-jing, briefed econoff on the 
university's new, more aggressive program to combat IPR violations. 
Yang, who is responsible for STUT's overall IPR-protection efforts, 
said the MOE Computer Center now sends regular requests from 
industry groups to the university to investigate alleged TANet 
 
TAIPEI 00001655  002 OF 004 
 
 
violations. Yang said her office, which had never received similar 
requests from the MOE in the past, must investigate and respond 
quickly to each request. Administrators from all other schools 
econoff spoke with echoed this. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Some schools that reported less drastic improvements during 
the Plan's first six months are now taking more aggressive actions. 
Professor Wen-jen Hsieh, Director of the Library at National Cheng 
Kung University in Tainan, reported to econoff in late 2007 that the 
Action Plan had not initially spurred Cheng Kung to take extra steps 
to combat piracy (ref H). On November 14, however, Hsieh detailed to 
econoff a wider set of IP-protection measures Cheng Kung has taken 
since then, including more aggressively monitoring illegal downloads 
on TANet, shutting down campus access to the most notorious P2P 
websites, and increasing IP-protection coordination across 
departments. 
 
MOE Responding to Digital Piracy 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU)  When it announced the Plan end-October 2007, the MOE 
agreed to form a task force that would include representatives from 
the Taiwan Book Publishers' Association (TBPA), the Business 
Software Alliance, the Taiwan International Federation of the 
Phonographic Industry (IFPI), and the Taiwan Foundation Against 
Copyright Theft (TFACT) [Note: TFACT was formerly called the Motion 
Picture Association - Taiwan. End note.] Initially, these groups 
complained the MOE did not meet regularly with rights holders, did 
not seem interested in cooperating closely with them in implementing 
the Plan (refs H, I), and did not respond in detail to rights-holder 
reports on possible copyright violations on TANet (ref J). 
 
¶7. (SBU) However, representatives from all four major industry 
groups tell us that although students continue to use TANet for 
unauthorized file sharing and other digital piracy, industry's 
communication and cooperation with the MOE improved over the second 
six months of the plan.  The MOE pledged in May to respond to 
individual complaints about TANet infringements every 60 days (ref 
K), and industry groups confirm the MOE has made good on the 
promise. On November 24, Stella Lai of the Taiwan branch of the 
Business Software Alliance (BSA) told econoff BSA sends about 50 
notices per month to the MOE about possible infringing incidents on 
TANet.  Lai said the MOE responds within six to eight weeks 
confirming whether the incidents were violations, and describing 
actions taken by the schools in response.  According to Lai, school 
actions range from removing the infringing material, freezing the 
student's TANet account, and, in rare cases, terminating the 
account. Although rights-holder groups would like MOE responses to 
include details, they are all satisfied with the MOE's increased 
feedback. 
 
Software Piracy Still a Problem 
------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) BSA's Taiwan representative, Gina Tsai, acknowledges the 
MOE has made progress dealing with Internet piracy on Taiwan's 
campuses, but says the Ministry is failing to deal with software 
piracy. BSA member companies say through Internet monitoring, 
software sales records, and student enrollment figures for classes 
using AutoCad and other expensive software, the companies know many 
universities either buy too few licenses for the number of students 
who use the software ("under-licensing"), or simply allow students 
to use pirated versions. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Although BSA does not think the problem is any worse on 
campuses than it is among the general population (ref H), they are 
frustrated the Ministry of Education does not seem willing to deal 
with the problem. Tsai said when BSA detects probable 
under-licensing of member software on campuses, university 
administrators typically either assure BSA no university computers 
use illegal software, or claim many professors' computer 
labs--though connected to TANet through the school--are funded with 
private-sector grants and are therefore not subject to university 
compliance measures. BSA's Lai told econoff many professors tell 
member companies they should turn a blind eye to campus 
under-licensing, since their students may one day go on to purchase 
the software to use professionally. 
 
¶10. (SBU) BSA is also frustrated the police are not willing to 
enforce copyright laws on campuses.  On November 24, Tsai told 
econoff she met earlier in the day with a local prosecutors' office 
to discuss the case of a university student allegedly selling burned 
copies of Windows XP from his campus dormitory room.  Tsai said 
 
TAIPEI 00001655  003 OF 004 
 
 
although the prosecutor agreed evidence shows the student is likely 
committing a crime, the prosecutor indicated to her his office--out 
of respect for academic independence--will not go onto the campus to 
investigate, but will instead ask the university to take action. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Many school administrators econoff meets with acknowledge 
some students may be using illegally-copied software, but the 
officials invariably argue legal software is often too expensive for 
individual students and, in some cases, for universities.  Director 
Chao of the MOE Computer Center told econoff on November 14 that, in 
response to schools' complaints about the high cost of software, the 
MOE is now offering small subsidies to universities to buy legal 
software. 
 
Textbook Piracy Down, Not Out 
----------------------------- 
 
¶12. (SBU) University administrators continue to report on-campus 
copying of textbooks is less rampant and less visible in Taiwan year 
over year. Although a 2007 survey showed that roughly half of 
college students still buy pirated versions of some books and 
supplementary materials (ref L), administrators at every university 
econoff recently visited noted the problem of illegal textbook 
copying has almost disappeared at on-campus copy shops.  They also 
report off-campus copy shops are either more reluctant to copy 
textbooks in whole or in part, or have begun to refuse to copy morethan a few pages of any one book.  University officials believe 
on-campus shops are fearful of MOE-mandated copy-shop lease 
agreements that include anti-piracy clauses, and that off-campus 
shop owners are increasingly aware that copyright violations could 
result in fines or arrest. 
 
¶13. (SBU) The Taiwan Book Publishers' Association (TBPA), however, 
complains that the problem has merely gone underground.  According 
to TBPA's Theresa Liu, although near-campus copy shops now rarely 
openly display copied materials, the shops still take orders through 
representatives on campus and standing student relationships, then 
deliver books directly to customers. Liu added even professors 
commonly copy pages or whole chapters of books for handing out in 
class. 
 
¶14. (SBU) TPBA has collected strong, though indirect, evidence to 
bolster their claims of continuing copyright violations on Taiwan's 
campuses.  During the 2008 fall semester, TBPA conducted a survey of 
usage rates for member textbooks in 34 classes at 21 Taiwan 
universities.  According to the information they gathered from 
school administrators and campus bookstores, an average of only 28 
percent of students in each class bought the textbook from the 
university bookstore, including 14 classes whose students did not 
buy even one copy of the book. Although Liu says some students may 
have found the books from other sources, she thinks most students 
simply bought pirated versions.  TBPA plans to present the final 
results of their investigation to the MOE in December. 
 
¶15. (SBU) School and publishers remain reluctant to seek other ways 
to pay textbook royalties.  In the United States and many other 
countries, schools pay royalties for journals and other copyrighted 
materials used in classes through the Copyright Clearance Center and 
similar clearinghouses. Taiwan has one such for-profit 
clearinghouse, the Chinese Oral and Literary Copyright Intermediary 
Association (Colcia). According to TBPA's Liu however, publishers 
say the per-page prices offered by Colcia are far below fair value. 
In addition, MOE Senior Specialist Chang Chung-hsin recently told 
econoff rights holders in Taiwan are unfamiliar with and do not 
trust for-profit copyright clearance services, and most do not want 
to authorize them to manage copyright issues on campus. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶16. (SBU) Although the MOE and many campus officials were initially 
unenthusiastic about the Campus IP Action Plan, the increasing 
attention paid by officials and college administrators to campus IPR 
protection suggest Taiwan is paying more than lip service to curbing 
campus violations. Music, movie, and software industry groups are 
pleased with Taiwan's actions against TANet piracy, though continued 
progress--including passing the long-awaited Internet service 
provider (ISP) law in the coming months, which the Taiwan 
authorities expect by the end of December--will be key to further 
reducing digital piracy on Taiwan's campuses. Taiwan's progress on 
campus enforcement, a key problem listed in this year's Special 301 
IPR Watch List citation, underscores the importance of completing 
the out-of-cycle review on Taiwan's Watch List status. End comment. 
 
TAIPEI 00001655  004 OF 004 
 
 
 
YOUNG