Largest pirated teaching material case busted in recent years, with infringed market value reaching TWD10 billion

　A 30-year-old cram school instructor, surnamed Hou, in New Taipei City colluded with his father and elder sister to illegally reproduce and sell online a large quantity of teaching materials and examination papers published by nine publishers without their consent or authorization, thereby being suspected of violating the Taiwan Copyright Act.  This case involves the estimated infringed market value in an amount of TWD18 billion and also illicit profits more than TWD15 million.  The Criminal Investigation Bureau has arrested seven suspects, including Hou, his family, and employees.  

　Hou and two accomplices are alleged to have jointly engaged in the illegal sale of pirated teaching materials. They hired four employees to assist in scanning and reproducing the materials into electronic files, which were then photocopied and printed as paper examination papers or copied onto optical discs.  The materials were sold through online e-commerce marketplaces or via the LINE messaging application, or uploaded to cloud storage platforms for purchase and download by unspecified buyers.

　In March 2025, the prosecutor initiated a raid action in Luzhou District of New Taipei City and uncovered evidence indicating Hou’s and the other suspects’ violation of the Copyright Act, seizing more than 1,800 discs containing infringing pirated teaching materials, 3 disc-burning machines, 2 desktop computers, 4 external hard drives, 3 mobile phones, electronic records, more than 20 boxes of infringing examination papers, and 1 advertising flyer, among other items.  

　The investigation found that the there had been nearly 10,000 transactions accumulated on online marketplaces involved in the case, involving illicit proceeds exceeding TWD15 million from 2022 through March 2025, which has caused substantial harm to the rights and interests of copyright holders.  After questioning, this case was referred to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office for investigation in accordance with the Copyright Act. 　(Released 2025.12.18)  
/CCS