US embassy cable - 05TAIPEI4059

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