International Copyright Protection

December 19, 2008

AAP commends the joint efforts of its partner the Taiwan Book Publishers Association and the national enforcement authorities (Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and Intellectual Property Rights Police (IPRP)) to carry out the first effective island-wide raid in several years. During late September and early October more than 135 officials searched 56 copyshops in Taipei, TAichung, Tainan, HsinChu, I-Lan, HwaLian and TaoYuan.  Authorities seized a total of 944 copies of titles owned by AAP member publishers including Oxford University Press, John Wiley and Sons, Elsevier, McGraw-Hill and Co., Pearson Education, Cengage Learning, Cambridge University Press and Macmillan. Authorities also found several photocopy machines, storing unauthorized digital master copies.

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July 24, 2008

AAP’s Patricia Judd met with a visiting official from Taiwan’s Ministry of Education this week to discuss issues related to protection of copyrighted materials on university and school campuses. The official was visiting Washington as part of a group studying the mechanisms and effects of collective licensing in different industries, and the discussion with AAP included an overview of general publishers’ views on collective licensing schemes as well as specific issues raised in the context of Taiwan’s program.

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March 25, 2008

The AAP-supported Taiwan Book Publishers Association (TBPA), a coalition of AAP member companies and local Taiwanese publishers, worked in collaboration with the Taiwan Intellectual Property Organization (TIPO) on a recent campaign designed to combat illegal photocopying of academic materials. The government-industry effort consisted of a campaign around several campuses in central Taiwan, urging college photocopy stores to refrain from illegal photocopying during the newly-begun spring term.

This campaign complements efforts arising out of AAP/TBPA enforcement in the region. Terms of an earlier settlement required photocopy shop owners and workers to participate in an anti-piracy event near Feng Chia University in Taichung. The March 18th event was sponsored by the Taiwanese government. These shop owners and workers are also required to display anti-piracy promotional flyers and banners in their stores during the spring semester.