Graduate Institute of Law- Fall 2010
Subject: Seminar on Criminal Culpability
Instructor: Professor Huang, Jung-Chien

Syllabus

Topic: The research on the criminal inculpation of intellectual property infringements.

The statutes which protect the intellectual properties, particularly the copyrights, are the most frequently revised laws in our legal system. Among those statues, some are “unique in the whole world,” which has been celebrated as an honor by some. Some, such as those penalizing the limited reproduction for the individual use, are constantly under revision. These statutes have thus intensively regulated various types of acts by comprehending all kinds of behaviors and designing intricate elements. The regulation is so intensive to the extent that each statute seems to target at one single behavior. Such a swift and weird law-making is quite rare in the legal history, from which we could see the contradictions between the legal scholarship and the practical needs. This course is going to examine the relevant legislations and cases, so that we could have the chance to study the questions relating to the criminal inculpation of intellectual property infringements, to clarify and fundamental conceptual questions, to questions the legitimacy of the relevant legislations, and to explore the interpretative issues. Because this topic could touch every aspect of criminal law, it has been chosen as a research topic for the course this fall.

1. The conceptual history of the intellectual property;
2. The conceptual scope of the intellectual property and the goal of this concept;
3. The concept of “culture”;
4. The concept of property interests in criminal law;
5. The legal interests protected by the statutes punishing patent infringements and copyright infringements;
6. The decriminalization of patent infringements (§11-2)
7. The concept of the property and the calculation of damages ( and its relation to the sentencing);
8. The meaning of punitive damages and its distinction from the criminal punishment;
9. The decriminalization (2003) and criminalization (2004) of reproduction of copyrighted materials for the individual use;
10. Case studies of ezPeer and Kuro;
11. The study of the Foxy Case (Banchiao 98 Chung-I 4）and Copyright law §87I⑦, II;
12. The relation between the civil immunities (Copyright Law Chapter 6-1) and criminal immunities for the ISP provider;
13. The punishment for circumventing the anti-reproduction measures (Copyright Law §80-2II).

II. Evaluation
Students’ evaluation will depend on (oral and written) papers presented by students and (80%) and their class participations and discussions (20%).

III. Credit Requirements
This course will satisfy the credit requirements of the Division of Criminal Law, Civil Law and Fundamental Legal Study.