Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Taiwan/es

This page provides an overview of the copyright rules of Taiwan relevant to uploading works into Wikimedia Commons. Note that any work originating in Taiwan must be in the public domain, or available under a free license, in both Taiwan and the United States before it can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. If there is any doubt about the copyright status of a work from Taiwan, refer to the relevant laws for clarification.

The island of Taiwan was annexed by Qing China in 1683, then ceded to Japan in 1895. The Republic of China (ROC) assumed control of Taiwan in 1945 after Japan's defeat in World War II. In 1949, the government of the ROC fled to Taiwan from mainland China. In 1971, the ROC lost its seat in the United Nations to the People's Republic of China (PRC).

The copyright laws of the Republic of China are codified in the Copyright Act as amended on 15 June 2022, in effect in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu.

A list of changes to copyright laws since 1928 is available at Wikibooks.

Works covered by copyright as listed at Article 5 are:^{[2022 Art.5]}

• Oral and literary works.
• Musical works.
• Dramatic and choreographic works.
• Artistic works.
• Photographic works.
• Pictorial and graphical works.
• Audiovisual works.
• Sound recordings.
• Architectural works.
• Computer programs.

According to the Copyright Act as amended on 15 June 2022,

• Generally, economic rights endure for the life of the author and 50 years after the author's death.^{[2022 Art.30]}
• Where a work is first publicly released between the 40th and 50th years after the author's death, the economic rights shall endure for a term of 10 years beginning from the time of the first public release.^{[2022 Art.30]}

• Economic rights in a joint work subsist for 50 years after the death of the last surviving author.^{[2022 Art.31]}
• Economic rights in a pseudonymous work or an anonymous work endure for 50 years from the time of public release; provided, the economic rights shall be extinguished where it can be proven that the author has been deceased for over 50 years. These provisions do not apply when the pseudonym of the author is well known to the public.^{[2022 Art.32]}

• Economic rights in works authored by a legal entity endure for 50 years after the public release of the work; provided, if the work is not publicly released within 50 years from the completion of the creation, the economic rights shall subsist for 50 years after completion of the creation.^{[2022 Art.33]}
• Economic rights for photographic works, audiovisual works, sound recordings, and performances endure for 50 years after the public release of the work. The proviso of the preceding article shall apply mutatis mutandis to the preceding paragraph.^{[2022 Art.34]}
• All the above terms of duration terminate as of the last day of the last year of the term.^{[2022 Art.35]}

According to the Copyright Act as amended on 15 June 2022, The following items shall not be the subject matter of copyright, to which {{PD-ROC-exempt}} applied:^{[2022 Art.9]}

1. The constitution, acts, regulations, or official documents.
2. Translations or compilations by central or local government agencies of works referred to in the preceding subparagraph.
3. Slogans and common symbols, terms, formulas, numerical charts, forms, notebooks, or almanacs.

1. Oral and literary works for news reports that are intended strictly to communicate facts.
2. Test questions and alternative test questions from all kinds of examinations held pursuant to acts or regulations.

The term "official documents" in the first subparagraph of the preceding paragraph includes proclamations, text of speeches, news releases, and other documents prepared by civil servants in the course of carrying out their duties.^{[2022 Art.9]}

According to Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO)^[3][4][5][6], symbols, seals, flags, or emblems that are formulated according to law are not subject to copyright protection under Article 9.

An old photograph of the Republic of China is in the public domain in both the Republic of China and the United States if it is one of the following:

See this page for further explanation.

• {{OGDL}} – for data released by government agency, government-owned business, public school and administrative legal entity and offered for use and re-use under the Open Government Data License, version 1.0.
• {{GWOIA}} – for information obtained from the websites of government agency, government-owned business, public school and administrative legal entity in Taiwan that includes the Government Website Open Information Announcement.

See also Commons:Copyright rules by territory/China:Copyright tags for works before and after 1949.

   for all New Taiwan Dollar, both banknotes and coins, per Commons:Deletion requests/NTD banknotes.

As explained by VRT ticket 2014050810011876, all NTDs are protected by copyright under the Copyright Act of Taiwan. The copyright holder is the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan):

In response to the enquiry in your e-mail dated April 27, 2014, please be noted that the images of our national currency are strictly under the protection of the Copyright Act of Taiwan. That means all the pictures on the NTD banknotes are not allowed to be exhibited on any commercial websites without our permission in advance.

For several years, some users claimed that {{GWOIA}} may apply to them, based on CBC's Government Website Open Data Announcement:

This is also not true as per another VRT ticket 2020051710002624, to which a CBC officer said that their GWOIA can only apply to their policy texts and photos made for hire that are photographed by their employees, and can't apply to any currency samples.

Please also note that there are several artworks and photograph works on currencies, they are all copyrighted, in Taiwan as per the copyright note, and in the United States as per URAA.

Inconclusive For Old Taiwan Dollars, their copyright terms should be treated case by case.

Public space and artistic works

Commercial freedom of panorama is not allowed in Taiwan for copyrighted works of art (non-architecture). A de minimis standard was set by the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office regarding photographs that may show copyrighted monuments and murals of Taiwan:

(2) As to whether the photographing of outdoor graffiti (artistic works) and print it in postcards for sale constitute the situation of "reproduction of artistic works for the purpose of selling reproductions" in paragraph 4 of Article 58 of the Law, in principle, if a specific artistic work is taken as the "theme" or the "focus", and the photos are printed in postcards for sale, it should be the situation of paragraph 4 of Article 58, one shall not claim fair use in accordance with this article; However, if such artistic works are used as the background for portrait photos or other landscape photos, and such art works are "attached" to the photos (not the focus of photo), there is a space for fair use in accordance with Paragraph 4 of Article 58 of the Law. As for the situation of fair use in accordance with Article 58 of the Law mentioned in the Vol.192 (p.77) of TIPO's monthly magazine, it is only limited to the above-mentioned "incidental use" of outdoor artistic works.

— Excerpt of English translation of Email No.1111122

Note that in the context of Taiwanese copyright law, fair use is not "fair use" in the American context but is a synonym for a copyright limitation. Freedom of panorama and de minimis are considered as types of fair uses in Taiwan.

• OK for buildings only {{FoP-Taiwan}}
•  Not OK for artistic works (sculptures, murals, and other non-architecture)

Article 58 of the "Copyright Act" states that:

Artistic works or architectural works displayed on a long-term basis on streets, in parks, on outside walls of buildings, or other outdoor locales open to the public, may be exploited by any means except under the following circumstances:

1. Reproduction of a building by construction of another building.
2. Reproduction of a work of sculpture by production of another sculpture.
3. Reproduction for the purpose of long-term public display in locales specified in this article.
4. Reproduction of artistic works solely for the purpose of selling copies.

Reproductions of artistic works are thus only for non-commercial purposes; therefore, such photographs are not free enough for Commons:  Not OK.

The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office upheld this exact and restrictive perspective on freedom of panorama in their two correspondences which are accessible online: Reply No.1111122 and Reply No.1111230. This not only replaces some inconsistent interpretations in the past which Wikimedia Commons accepted in 2018 (for 3D public art) and in 2020 (for 2D public art), but also reinstated the original standpoint of Wikimedia Commons regarding the Taiwanese freedom of panorama. A more recent correspondence from TIPO, Reply No.11260001910, reaffirms the prior replies and explicity states that the use of free Creative Commons licenses on photos of copyrighted public art (such as outdoor sculptures of Ju Ming and Hongtong village murals) as mandated by Wikimedia may result to copyright infringement as the licenses involve the use of those photos on post cards and other media in which the only purpose is to sell copies of the artistic work. TIPO suggested that the Creative Commons license terms should exclude "reproduction of artistic works solely for the purpose of selling copies of the said works."

Also, Article 64 states that:

• Who uses other people's works according to Article 44 to 47, Article 48 to Article 50, Article 52, Article 53, Article 55, Article 57, Article 58, and Articles 60 to 63, shall clearly indicate their origin.
• The source of the explicit source in the preceding paragraph shall be used in a reasonable manner except for those whose name is unknown or whose works are unknown.

See also these related discussions: in October 2021 and in January 2023 on Commons, and also an extensive discussion and debate over the matter in Chinese Wikipedia.

Architecture vs. artistic works

Reply No.11260001910 reaffirms the standards of what is an architectural work in Taiwan, citing Section 4 the Building Act. Accordingly, a building "refers to the structures or miscellaneous works fixed on the ground or under the ground surface, having top covers, beams, columns, or walls, and used for individuals or the public." According to TIPO, if a certain work belongs to the categories of both architectural works and artistic works, the said work is still subject to the non-commercial restrictions of Taiwanese freedom of panorama at Article 58, paragraph 4.

The level required for copyright is low. Independently created works with "minimal creativity" are eligible, according to Taiwan's Intellectual Property Office.

The following examples are  :

• These two artworks with traditional design elements are unprotected, according to court decisions that they do not meet the originality threshold for copyright protection:

• Simple typeface, such as the typeface of Sunshow company logo:

The following examples are   :

• Calligraphy works, including:
  • "燒烤飯糰" on this photo, is copyright protected ruled by a court.

• • "風月堂" (see the last page of the PDF document for the work in question).^[13]
• The graphic part of Sunshow company's logo. The court ruled that the graphic part of the logo: two hands clasped together, one over the other, is copyrightable, but the typeface "SUNSHOW" is not.^[14]
• The Louis Vuitton Monogram Multicolor pattern [1]^[15].

 Not OK: This government regulation (archived from original) lists handwriting and calligraphy as examples of artistic works that are subject to copyright protection.

According to the TIPO^[16], stamps are considered as normal copyrighted artworks, not government works. Old stamps can be public domain following the #Terms section above.