Protecting copyright in online media – Taipei Times

• By Wei Hsin-fang 魏杏芳

In the latest development on disputes between large tech companies and media organizations over payment for the reuse of news content, Facebook on October 21 signed a multi-year deal with a lobby group of French publishers to pay news content shared by its users. The legal basis for such remuneration has its origins in the reform of European digital copyright law in 2019, which extended “neighboring rights” to extracts published by publishers.

Google also made similar deals with French newspaper publishers earlier this year. In February, Australia’s parliament passed the News Media Trading Code to force Google and Facebook to negotiate with news providers for payment for shared content.

These movements sparked enthusiastic discussions in Taiwan. Associations representing newspapers, publishers and other media are urging the government to take corrective action. Lawmakers from all parties have called on the government to step in with the idea, among other things, that the media and free speech are the cornerstones of democracy.

The most critical issue for government has always been which ministry or authority should be in charge of the issue.

Minister without portfolio Kuo Yau-hwang (郭耀煌) said that this is an issue requiring collaboration between several ministries, using expertise from different professions and disciplines. Taiwan has yet to decide to enact a new law, not even an outline of possible measures to answer the question. Even if a responsible authority is designated, the timing of enacting such laws is uncertain.

When it comes to structuring digital ads, Google and Facebook act as “regulators” on their platforms, where publishers sell space for ads. Publishers or advertisers interact according to models designed by Google or Facebook, including the buying and selling prices of ads, but transparency on the rules of transactions is insufficient.

Since many aspects of how the platforms work are not well understood, neither by academics nor by government authorities, the imbalance between news publishers and major gateways to the Internet would only worsen, especially s ‘it is accompanied by an extreme use of data collection by the technology in place. giants.

Google and Facebook have an incredibly large impact on individuals, businesses and society, and this inherently unfair competitive environment must be addressed.

Theoretically, clauses providing for neighboring rights do not exist in the Copyright Law (著作權 法); the European model is therefore not the optimal choice for Taiwan.

However, competition law can play a constructive role in the evolution of a digital economy. Although competition law is not an appropriate tool to facilitate price negotiations between specific parties, its application could help create a healthier business environment in which all participants can act freely and fairly.

The Fair Trade Act (公平交易法) includes a provision that is not found in US or EU competition law, and could be seen as a reflection of Taiwanese values ​​with its “catch” function. According to article 25 of the law, “no company shall engage in deceptive or manifestly unfair behavior likely to affect the commercial order” which is not otherwise provided for by law.

The “Guidelines on the application of article 25 of the Fair Trade Act” of the Fair Trade Commission include “the exploitation of the fruits of the labor of others” as an example to indicate manifestly unfair means during the transaction. competition in the market or commercial transactions.

The free use of information by digital advertising platforms is arguably a new category of problematic conduct in the digital landscape. Therefore, innovative thinking and new theories for the application should be considered. Article 25 of the Fair Trade Law is well suited to be applied by the competition authority to examine whether unfair and illegal operating practices could possibly be implemented by Google and Facebook, which could therefore harm newspapers and media in Taiwan.

Wei Hsin-fang is commissioner of the Fair Trade Commission.