Local YouTube channel sued by local film distributor for unauthorized reproduction of film trailers

　In 2022, a copyright dispute arose between True Movie, the famous film YouTube channel in Taiwan, and GaragePlay, the local film distributor.  In this dispute, GaragePlay was dissatisfied with the situation that JIANG Meng-Hong, True Movie’s operator (namely Truemovie Studio) (hereinafter “Jiang”) altered and reproduced, without GaragePlay’s authorization, many videos in which GaragePlay holds copyrights and further uploaded them to the YouTube to gain profits.  Out of such dissatisfaction, GaragePlay filed a lawsuit with the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court (hereinafter the “IPC Court”) against True Move on April 12, 2022 to request for copyright infringement removal.  The IPC Court determined in favor of GaragePlay and demanded True Movie to remove a total of 118 audiovisual works and to bear all litigation expenses.  The court decision is appealable.  

　The IPC Court determined that “GaragePlay is the exclusive licensee of the audiovisual works in dispute”, and based on that determination, the IPC Court further ruled that “True Movie indeed infringed upon GaragePlay’s economic rights in and to the audiovisual works by transmitting these works to its YouTube channel without GaragePlay’s prior consent or authorization”.  According to the IPC Court decision, the oral argument sessions of this civil action concluded on January 18, 2023, and True Movie is prohibited from using the audiovisual works in dispute by public transmission on the YouTube (including use of the network links as indicated in the column of “YouTube Link” of attachments) in the territory of Taiwan (including Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu).  (Released 2023.04.21)  
/CCS