US industries pan Taiwan over piracy
　

NOT IMPRESSED: The International Intellectual Property Alliance said Taiwan's piracy ranking should not be eased under a US law until Taipei passes stronger legislation
　

By Charles Snyder
STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON
Thursday, Feb 14, 2008, Page 1

A powerful coalition of US industries has urged the US government to keep Taiwan on a watch list of countries with serious intellectual property violations, apparently dashing Taipei's hopes that its progress against piracy would earn it better treatment by US trade officials.

The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IPAA), a grouping of 11 major trade associations representing movies, music, software and other copyright material, made its recommendations to the US Trade Representative's office on Monday in an annual report that plays a major role in determining the office's decisions on global rankings that it makes each spring.

The IPAA said Taiwan's piracy ranking should not be eased under the US' "Special 301" law until it passes new legislation, carries out more effective enforcement measures and curbs illegal photocopying on university campuses.

The industry report estimated that copyright piracy in Taiwan cost US industries US$328 million in revenues last year. While this is substantially lower than the annual figures for the early 2000s and the 1990s, it represents a continuation of a virtually horizontal trend line in recent years. Comparisons with 2006 are difficult, however, since some 2006 figures are not available in the IPAA report.

The biggest loss claimed by the IPAA last year was US$202 million in entertainment software, followed by US$104 million in business software.

While Taiwan has taken a wide variety of measures to crack down on piracy of all kinds in recent years, the alliance said the situation is still bad.

Taiwan has been on the Special 301 watch list and more serious Priority Watch List since 2001 and had similar rankings in the 1990s.

The country's continued appearance on the lists, which include nearly 30 other countries, has been a major irritant in bilateral trade relations and has impeded greater progress under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement between Washington and Taipei, which seeks to negotiate settlements to trade frictions.

As in recent years, the alliance this year zeroed in on Internet piracy as the most critical area for attention by Taiwanese authorities.

"Internet piracy continues as one of Taiwan's most critical piracy problems," the IPAA's nine-page report section on Taiwan said. "While the authorities have made significant efforts to run raids and bring criminal actions against such piracy, including the use of the new, and long-awaited P2P law passed in June 2007, enforcement should be further strengthened."

The P2P, or "peer-to-peer," law aimed to clamp down on illegal file sharing among individuals using the Internet.

"Taiwan should be commended for passing strong legislation to deal with growing P2P piracy," the alliance said.

But it called for new laws to impose liability on Internet service providers (ISPs) who do not clamp down on piracy conducted using their networks.

"An ISP liability bill that would clarify and extend liability to ISPs for infringements in certain cases, create safe harbors from liability upon expeditious takedown of infringing sites and set out an expeditious notice and takedown mechanism, should be passed this spring," the report said.

The alliance also urged the Ministry of Education once again to clamp down on piracy over the government-owned TANet. Last spring, the IPAA said, the ministry drew up an action plan to deal with the use of TANet for illegal P2P file sharing.

"This plan has yet to be effectively implemented and a government rights holder special task force created under the plan has not met since last August and must meet on a more frequent basis," the IPAA said.

"This implementation must include clear guidance to universities to block access to students engaged in significant illegal file sharing, to inform rights holders of its actions and to cooperate with enforcement authorities," it said.

The IPAA praised Taiwan for its efforts to clamp down on more traditional forms of piracy of physical products.

"Taiwan is to be commended for reducing industrial [factory] OD [optical disc] piracy and retail OD [original design] piracy to very low levels, and for continued reductions in end user piracy of business software," the report said.

However, the report also said that OS piracy had shifted from factory production to illegal "burning" of copyrighted material onto discs.

Taiwan reviews impact of new US spy charges
　

COMPROMISED? THE MINISTRY OF NATIONAL DEFENSE SAID IT WAS TAKING:
　

By Peter Enav
AP, TAIPEI, WITH STAFF WRITER
Thursday, Feb 14, 2008, Page 3

Allegations that a Pentagon analyst passed information to a Chinese spy ring has sent Taiwan scrambling to determine whether the case compromises a critical new air defense system it is purchasing from Washington.

The system -- known in Taiwan as Bo Sheng (Broad Victory) is crucial in helping the military defend against a possible attack from China, which has more than 900 missiles aimed at Taiwan.

A Ministry of National Defense official said on Tuesday that the ministry was looking into the case of Kuo Tai-sheng (郭台生), 58, who was arrested in the US for allegedly providing information obtained from US Defense Department weapons systems policy analyst Gregg Bergersen, 51.

On Monday, the US Justice Department said Bergersen sold classified defense information to Kuo, a New Orleans furniture salesman. Kuo, a Taiwanese native and naturalized US citizen, then forwarded the information to the Chinese government, it said.

In an affidavit, the Justice Department said that Bergersen discussed with Kuo the Bo Sheng system -- a sophisticated command, control and communications network that Taiwan is purchasing from Lockheed Martin.

The affidavit said Kuo had "taken steps" to set up two companies in an effort to obtain subcontracts for Bo Sheng-related equipment.

Less than two years ago a former Taiwan-based Lockheed Martin employee was convicted in the US on charges of trying to provide weapons to China, though those charges did not relate directly to the Bo Sheng system.

The ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the press, said the ministry was trying to ascertain if the information Kuo allegedly supplied to China was related to Bo Sheng.

"We understand Mr. Kuo was not awarded any contracts connected with the command system," the official said. "The US Defense Department is handling our weapons purchases, and we are trying to understand [the case]."

A ministry statement did not refer specifically to the Lockheed Martin system, but said a task force had been set up to investigate possible damage to Taiwan that spies arrested in the US might have caused.

"The Ministry of National Defense is concerned whether the US has suffered a leak of classified information, and it is taking measures to deal with the situation," the statement said.

A defense official said Kuo was a son-in-law of the late admiral Hsueh Yueh (薛岳), who became famous for his part in several battles in China against Japan.

He said Kuo immigrated to the US several decades ago, where he worked as a tennis coach and restauranteur before starting his business in China a decade ago.

He said Kuo had not obtained any information about the Bo Sheng system.

The military also did not think Kuo had received any top level secrets, he said.

Australia apologizes for suffering of Aborigines
　

STOLEN GENERATIONS: Many wept quietly as they listened to the prime minister say sorry for the grief and pain inflicted on tens of thousands of Aborigines

AP, CANBERRA
Thursday, Feb 14, 2008, Page 5

Australia apologized yesterday to its indigenous people for past suffering in a watershed parliament vote broadcast at school assemblies, on giant TV screens in cities and at breakfast barbecues in Aboriginal communities in the Outback.

Lawmakers unanimously adopted Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's motion on behalf of all Australians that: "We apologize for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians."

Supporters said the apology would open an new chapter in race relations.

The apology was directed especially at the tens of thousands of Aborigines who were forcibly taken from their families as children under now-abandoned assimilation policies.

"For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry," the motion said. "And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry."

In parliament's public galleries and at gatherings large and small around the country, victims of the assimilation policies and their supporters listened intently as Rudd spoke. Many wept quietly.

In Sydney, traditional cleansing ceremonies were held in the predominantly Aboriginal suburb of Redfern before the broadcast on a giant screen. Parents clutched children on their knees, some waving Australian and Aboriginal flags.

"Sorry heals the heart and it goes deep," said Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor, an Aborigine among the crowd. "This really means a big thing to us -- a weight that can be lifted so that we can start our healing."

At Australia Street Infant School elsewhere in the city, more than 60 preschoolers and parents watched the speech at a special assembly, and the school planned a giant painting of each child's hand print to mark the occasion.

Karen Donnelly said she wanted her three-year-old daughter Zara Dennis "to be able to reflect later on what happened, and to be a part of history."

In the Outback town of Broome on the far northwest coast, dozens gathered before dawn at a high school to watch the speeches in Canberra on television via a scratchy feed.

"I'm glad it's come this far," local Aborigine Justin Howard told Australian Broadcasting Corp. "But it's not going to stop here, there is still going to be that hurt."

In a solemn speech accompanying the motion, Rudd said Australians had reached a time in their history when they must face up to their past to be able to cope with the future.

"To deal with this unfinished business of the nation," Rudd said. "To remove a great stain from the nation's soul and in the true spirit of reconciliation to open a new chapter in the history of this great land Australia."

Rudd received a standing ovation from lawmakers and from scores of Aborigines and other dignitaries who were invited to parliament to witness the event. The opposition coalition supported the motion, though one member walked out of the chamber to avoid the vote -- underscoring lingering disagreement with the idea in some quarters.

A motto for Taiwan


Thursday, Feb 14, 2008, Page 8

"Liberty, combat, philanthropy" might be a good motto for Taiwan.

Liberty is a question to be dealt with as a matter of the utmost urgency -- as a legacy from the people who sacrificed their life for it, like so many lilies engraved on the road of Taiwan's human rights.

Liberty can be compared to a strong but sensitive woman, ready to fight for her children and family, her friends and neighbors and the natural environment as well. She can cook and feed, before transmitting her knowledge to her children; she also reads and inspires, and teaches her children accordingly. She is the weapon against cold-blooded rationalism and greed for money that infects so many people nowadays and destroys nature.

Liberty is an entity whose name deserves to be written everywhere, as Paul Eluard urged in his poem, "on all pages and screens, on the horizon too and the wings of birds." Why is it so important to write her name everywhere? To free yourself from the old yokes -- masters and commanders -- and the new yokes, which are money and materialism.

Every Taiwanese has the right to be the master of his or her fate. Why do we need the Liberty Square instead of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial? Because Liberty Square represents the past, the present and the future of Taiwanese seeking liberty.

Through long and gruesome combat, the Taiwanese people conquered and seized their freedom from the hands of the Japanese colonizers, then conquered a second time and seized it from the hands of a dictatorship. Yet this fight is far from over. Even more challenges wait ahead, in the form of imperialistic nations. The Taiwanese will have to fight for their freedom, and this is their mission. Such combat is unavoidable.

Many Taiwanese are wise; they have deep emotions and knowledge; they have integrated the ancient wisdom but they are too shy or too modest, sometimes even too self-effacing to think they can innovate; so they let it manifest in a sort of fatalistic way. That's the reason why "combat" would be the second term of the motto. Combat led by artists.

When it comes to a combative soul, who is more appropriate than the artist to arouse the spirit of a population? As Wassily Kandinsky, who painted the first modern abstract paintings said, the artist has the social mission to refine the human spirit. Living in osmosis with the nature, he/she is inspired by her and feels a deep emotion that makes him/her create a work of art. This work of art transmits a strong spiritual force to those who view it and a strong desire to achieve something good for the community. French painter Gustave Moreau's Prometheus ignites in everybody's heart a strong desire to resist against oppression and achieve something for humanity in spite of the terrible suffering this might bring.

Born from the interactions between artist and spectator is the last term of the motto, "philanthropy." Famous thinker Zhang Zai (張載) of the Song Dynasty once said "all the people are my fellows and all things are my companions." This phrase represents philanthropy. Indeed, a fight for liberty involves not only oneself or one's family, but also all the people living in Taiwan and the land, mountains and rivers as well. Freedom through combat, philanthropy through freedom: This is the spirit we should embrace.

Sylvie Allassonniere
Taipei