The first joint effort between Japan and Taiwan to crack down on the pirating of intellectual property has led to the seizure by Taiwanese police of nearly 10,000 Japanese DVDs sold in the island's night markets, local police said Saturday.
Shyh Show-yi, deputy commander of the National Police Administration's Intellectual Property Rights Division, said the seizure capped a five-month operation that began in November when five Japanese TV stations filed a complaint.
The five stations — Japan Broadcasting Corp., Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings Inc., Nippon Television Network Corp., Fuji Television Network Inc. and Yomiuri Telecasting Corp. — asked agency in charge of policing Japanese copyright claims overseas, the Content Overseas Distribution Association, to work with its Taiwanese counterpart in the hope that cross-border legal action could help curb distribution of pirated Japanese TV dramas in Taiwan.