Defending media copyright on-line – Taipei Occasions

• By Wei Hsin-fang 魏杏芳

Within the newest improvement on disputes between massive tech firms and media organizations over fee for reusing information content material, Fb on Oct. 21 signed a multiyear settlement with a French publishers’ lobbying group to pay for information content material shared by its customers. The authorized foundation for such remuneration originated in EU digital copyright regulation reform in 2019, which prolonged “neighboring rights” to snippets launched by publishers.

Google additionally reached comparable offers with French information publishers earlier this 12 months. In February, the Australian parliament handed the Information Media Bargaining Code to pressure Google and Fb to barter with information suppliers for the fee of shared content material.

These actions have sparked enthusiastic dialogue in Taiwan. Associations representating newspapers, publishers and different media are strongly urging the federal government to take remedial motion. Legislators throughout celebration traces have known as for the federal government to step in with the view, amongst others, that media and freedom of speech are the cornerstones of democracy.

Essentially the most important downside for the federal government has at all times been which ministry or authority must be in command of the matter.

Minister With out Portfolio Kuo Yau-hwang (郭耀煌) mentioned that this is a matter requiring collaboration throughout a number of ministries, using the experience of various professions and disciplines. Taiwan has not but determined to enact a brand new regulation, not even a top level view of attainable measures to answer the matter. Even when a accountable authority is designated, the time for enacting such legal guidelines is unsure.

Wanting on the structuring of digital adverts, Google and Fb act as “regulators” on their platforms, the place publishers promote house for ads. Publishers or advertisers work together based on fashions designed by Google or Fb, together with costs for getting and promoting adverts, however there may be inadequate transparency on the foundations for transactions.

On condition that many features of how platforms operate should not properly understood, neither by teachers nor authorities authorities, the imbalance between information publishers and the key gateways to the Web would solely worsen, notably when accompanied by the intense use of knowledge assortment by the incumbent tech giants.

Google and Fb have an extremely giant affect on people, companies and society, and this intrinsically unfair competitors atmosphere must be addressed.

Theoretically, clauses offering neighboring rights don’t exist within the Copyright Act (著作權法); subsequently the European mannequin just isn’t the optimum selection for Taiwan.

Nevertheless, competitors regulation can play a constructive function within the evolution of a digital financial system. Although competitors regulation just isn’t a correct instrument for the aim of facilitating negotiations on costs between particular events, its enforcement may assist create a more healthy enterprise atmosphere by which all members can act freely and pretty.

The Honest Commerce Act (公平交易法) features a provision that’s not present in US or EU competitors regulation, and could possibly be seen as a mirrored image of Taiwanese values with its “catchall” operate. Beneath Article 25 of the regulation, “no enterprise shall in any other case have any misleading or clearly unfair conduct that is ready to have an effect on buying and selling order” which isn’t in any other case offered by the act.

The Honest Commerce Fee’s “Pointers on the Utility of Article 25 of the Honest Commerce Act” embrace “exploiting the fruits of others’ work” for example to point clearly unfair means when participating in market competitors or industrial transactions.

The free use of reports by digital promoting platforms is little doubt a brand new class of problematic conduct on the digital panorama. Subsequently, modern pondering and new theories for enforcement have to be thought of. Article 25 of the Honest Commerce Act is well-suited to be utilized by the competitors enforcer to look at if any unfair and unlawful exploitative practices may probably be carried out by Google and Fb, which may consequently hurt newspapers and media in Taiwan.

Wei Hsin-fang is a Honest Commerce Fee commissioner.