[Advocacy Advisors] [Wikimedia-l] SOPA related bill in Taiwan

[Stephen LaPorte]

Hello Ted,

I am cross-posting your email for the advocacy advisory group.

On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 1:43 PM, Ted Chien <hsiangtai.chien at gmail.com>wrote:

> My dear colleagues,
>
> Recently on May 21 the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office has announced
> that they will amend the Copyright Act to demand local ISPs to block
> illegal contents on foreign websites, just like the SOPA bill in USA last
> year. For more information, you can read the following news reports:
>
> Focus Taiwan:
> http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aall/201305210035.aspx
>
> ZDNet:
>
> http://www.zdnet.com/cn/taiwans-copyright-act-amendment-proposal-comes-under-fire-7000015943/
>
> Now there are many Taiwan netizens protesting the bill:
>
>
> http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/05/26/netizens-fear-copyright-amendment-will-bring-web-filter-system-to-taiwan/
>
> But today we just see an news that TIPO just ignored these protests and
> insist that this bill will not harm the net freedom and rights of general
> users:
>
> http://newtalk.tw/news/2013/05/28/36854.html (it's in Chinese, you may use
> Google translate to read the news.)
>
> Indeed we should protect the copyright, but to ask ISPs to block websites
> is too over-reaction.
>
> We Wikimedia Taiwan is now against the bill and has just released an
> Chinese announcement on our official website to explain why we against the
> bill and ask the government to stop the act:
>
> http://bit.ly/ZbvTX0
>
> We also started an discussion on zh.wp to ask the community if we could put
> the announcement as an global site notice, we even think about blackout
> zh.wp for 24 hours (the date is still in discussion):
>
> http://goo.gl/fXi8g
>
> This is because according to Alexa.com (http://Alexa.com), Wikipedia is
> now
> the top 10 website in Taiwan. To blackout Wikipedia in Taiwan should get
> the attention of TIPO and has some effects.
>
> My questions are:
>
> * Could we ask for blackout Wikipedia (not just zh.wp) ONLY for Taiwan IP?
> (Some users from China hope this blackout will not effect them)
> * If we could not blackout Wikipedia only for Taiwan IP, could we ask to
> blackout zh.wp? (from what we have discussed on zh.wp, the Chinese
> community has agreed on such blackout, but the date is still on discussion)
> * If we could implement such blackout, how soon it can be done?
> * What suggestions from you that we should do as an local Chapter?
>
> Thanks and Regards,
> Ted Chien
> Chairman
> Wikimedia Taiwan
> --
> Blog: htttp://htchien.tw (http://htchien.tw/)
> Facebook: http://facebook.com/htchien
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/htchien
> LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/htchien
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>



-- 
Stephen LaPorte
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation

*For legal reasons, I may only serve as an attorney for the Wikimedia
Foundation. This means I may not give legal advice to or serve as a lawyer
for community members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal
capacity.*
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