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The effective and innovative way to use the spectrum: focus on the development of the "interleaved/white space"

1. Prologue

Flexible and collective usage of spectrum is the mainstream in the modern times. Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, delivered the keynote address to the CTIA-Wireless Association convention on Oct. 7, 20091. He said the U.S. government has been tripling the amount of spectrum available for commercial uses. The problem is that many industry experts predict wireless traffic will increase 30 times because of online video and other bandwidth-heavy applications. Accordingly, he warned that the shortage of spectrum would be a crisis for the on-going evolution of mobile broadband communication. Therefore, it’s critical for using precious spectrum effectively. Now, with the breakthrough of ICT, there is an alternative solution to this crisis: "application of interleaved/white space".

2. The cure for shortage of the spectrum

To solve the shortage and ineffective use of scarce spectrum, developed countries have innovated technology to overcome the dilemma. Accordingly, the cognitive radio (CR) network with OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access)2 systems, namely "spectrum sensing", to use the interleaved/white space is the therapy nowadays, especially after digital switchover (DSO).

CEPT (European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations) identified "white space" as a part of the spectrum, which is available for a radio-communication application (service, system) at a given time in a given geographical area on a non-interfering / non-protected basis with regard to primary services and other services with a higher priority on a national basis. Specified clearly, the wording of "White Spots" or "White Spaces" or "Interleaved Spectrum" applied by CEPT has been used to introduce a concept of frequency spectrum which is potentially available at a given time for further utilization within frequency spectrum originally planned for broadcasting in GE063. The current CEPT view is that any new white space applications should be used on a non protected non interfering basis.

Further studies are required into the framework needed to enable the use of CR devices within white space spectrum.

Meanwhile, Millions more — both rural and urban — couldn’t afford computers and internet access in the United States. Yet big telephone and cable companies won’t bring broadband internet to rural America. Therefore, U.S. administration takes it seriously and considers to bridge the "digital gap" via CR networks for using white space to high-speed wireless internet access in rural area. Moreover, innovative way to use the spectrum after DSO could also satisfy the demand of band immediately with National Broadband Plan which proposed by President Barack Obama.

3. The definition and function of "white/interleaved space"

In a word, the spectrum licensed to commercial use or public safety is not always occupied totally all the time. Accordingly, some bands are vacant just like "white" or "interleaved". If communicators use these interleaved and fragmented bands temporally, the spectrum-usage will be more effective and the cost of the spectrum now we used will be much lower. Not only U.S but also UK regulator Ofcom has published a discussion document to explore the possibility of using interleaved spectrum to wirelessly link up different devices and offer enhanced broadband access in rural areas. The idea is based on the development of technology that could search for unoccupied radio waves between TV channels to transmit and receive wireless spectrum.

Take DSO in U.S. for example, when TV goes digital in June, 2009, TV broadcasters will use only a small portion of the public airwaves they are allocated.4 This is because digital transmissions can be packed into adjacent channels, while analog ones cannot. This means that the band can be "compressed" into fewer channels, while still allowing for more transmissions, which could result in a kind of "white space" (or so-called digital dividend) mentioned above.

In most rural areas, 60 to 70 percent of these digital airwaves will be vacant. It goes without saying that those bands will be idle, which will also increase the cost the spectrum-usage. However, the TV band can carry a broadband signal that penetrates buildings, travels great distances, and penetrates heavy foliage. If people could search the "spectrum hole", off course, with CR or DSA (Dynamic Spectrum Sensing), and then link up those unoccupied band for wireless communication, the compelling needs of spectrum will be eased. Most important of all, this innovative way fits the trend of collective and flexible spectrum usage in 3G/4G era.

4. The key to open "white space"

Undoubtedly, the WSD (White Space Devices) is the key to open the new gate. FCC issues some R&O to test WSD for welcoming white space. On October 5, 2007, OET (the Office of Engineering and Technology) of FCC issued a public notice inviting submittal of additional prototype devices for further tests (Phase II). On February 24, 2010, OET selected Wilmington, North Carolina, for the test market for the DTV transition, and unveiled a new municipal Wi-Fi network, after a month of testing. OET permitted that TV Band has an 18-month experimental license.5

For the goal of "smart city", the network has used the white space made available by the end of analog TV transmission. Spectrum Bridge (a famous company devoted to working out WSD and solution to white space)6 has worked to make sure TV stations in the market do not receive interference (no interference issues have been reported), and the company hopes to do the same if similar service becomes nationwide. The "smart city" network will not compete with cell phone companies but will instead be used for "national purposes", including government and energy monitoring (i.e. Smart Grid). TV Band Network, made up of private investors, has put up cameras in parks, and along highways to show traffic. Other uses include water level and quality, turning off lights in ball parks, and public Wi-Fi in certain areas.7 This success has promptly encouraged those have eyed unlicensed band/devices for wireless broadband internet access, especially the White Spaces Coalition8.

The White Spaces Coalition consists of eight large technology companies that originally planned to deliver high speed broadband internet access beginning in June 2009 to United States consumers via existing white space in unused television frequencies between 54-698 MHz (TV Channels 2-51). The coalition expects speeds of 80 Mbps and above, and 400 to 800 Mbps for white space short-range networking9. Therefore, the Coalition hasn’t only pushed FCC to free up the band, namely unlicensed-band approach, but also eagerly innovated the WSD and advanced IT technology (i.e. Geo-Location, CR, DSA, OFDMA and IEEE 802.2210 …etc. ) to promote the awareness of white space.

5. How to use the key to unlock the door ?

First of all, Geo-Location technology is the threshold to use the white space. Geo-Location is the identification of the real-world geographic location of Internet-connected computers, mobile devices, website visitors or others. In avoidance of band-interference and public safety communication, users mustn’t interfere with the prior ones, or s/he couldn’t access the band via WSD. Thus, Geo-Location can assist WSD users, just like a beacon, to avoid the occupied band and keep them away from nearby transmissions.

Second, a spectrum database that contains Geo-Location information about devices using the free channels in the radio spectrum and some strong database managers are needed. Frankly speaking, the original idea was that WSD would detect existing users and switch frequencies to avoid them, but that's technically dubious and hasn't been demonstrated to FCC's satisfaction. So the proposed solution requires devices to locate themselves then connect to a database which will allocate a frequency along with a timeout, after which the device will have to repeat its request. For example, the followings are the necessary information in the TV database.
• Transmitter coordinates (latitude and longitude),
• Effective radiated power (ERP),
• Height above average terrain of the transmitter (HAAT),
• Horizontal transmit antenna pattern (if the antenna is directional),
• channel number,
• Station call sign.

In a word, in order to protect existing broadcasters, FCC mandated the creation of a Geo-Location database that details what spectrum is in use and where. Furthermore, the idea is that unlicensed broadband devices will tap this database before sending or receiving data, using the info in tandem with spectrum sensing technologies to avoid interference. Accordingly, White Spaces Database (WSDB) was introduced, a DB which would permit public access to register and discover devices and the frequencies used based on their location11. This database would be used in conjunction with local device discovery to avoid contention between devices. FCC has worried about that no one has ever run a radio system like this, so no one can really claim experience in the area (though most of the proposals try).

The FCC commissioner Robert McDowell has raised an eyebrow at Google's request to serve as an administrator of a national database detailing the use of white-space spectrum. Google proposes the operation of a WSDB for at least five years, promising to "transfer to a successor entity the Database, the IP addresses and URLs used to access the Database, and the list of registered Fixed WSD" in case they cannot live up to it. Google does not plan to "implement per-query fees"12 , but they are considering a per-device fee. No decision has been made yet, but the FCC allows a WSDB administrator to charge such fees.13

Finally but innovating initially, it’s the Cognitive Radio system (CR). There are various definitions of CR. Herewith the paragraph 10 of the FCC 03-322 NPRM, the definition of Cognitive Radio could be specified as a radio that can change its transmitter parameters based on interaction with the environment in which it operates.
The following figure shows how the Cognitive Radio System does work.
Figure 1.Cognitive Radio System

Let’s explain it more clearly and vividly. Imagine a radio which autonomously detects and exploits empty spectrum to increase your file transfer rate. Suppose this same radio could remember the locations where your calls tend to drop and arrange for your call to be serviced by a different carrier for those locations. These are some of the ideas motivating the development of cognitive radio. In effect, a cognitive radio is a software radio whose control processes leverage situational knowledge and intelligent processing to work towards achieving some goal related to the needs of the user, application, and network.

Although cognitive radio was initially thought of as a software-defined radio extension (Full Cognitive Radio), most of the research work is currently focusing on Spectrum Sensing Cognitive Radio. In other words, the focus on CR has been switched into "DSA" (Dynamic Spectrum Access) nowadays.14 Therefore, some fellows replace Cognitive Radio with "Cognitive Systems" for accurate description.15 The following is the figure to show the function of DSA to detect "spectrum hole" that could be used as TV white space.16

Figure 2.The sensing of the spectrum hole

"Digital dividend", one kind of interleaved/white space, has been viewed as precious band in Unite Kingdom, too. In U.K., its regulatory body, Ofcom, has also published a discussion document to explore the possibility of using these "dividend" to wirelessly link up different devices and offer enhanced broadband access in rural areas. Ofcom has predicted that could enable the use of the spectrum in this way would take at least three years to develop. Possible applications include mobile broadband, the transmission of home media such as photos from cameras to a computer wirelessly and the ability to control appliances in the home. Moreover, Ofcom firmly contended that if there was evidence that interference could be avoided, it would allow the use of interleaved spectrum without the need for individual licenses, the same as the FCC’s policy.

However, local TV coalition United for Local Television (ULTV)17 has strongly criticized the Ofcom’s current proposal to appoint a band manager to "control" interleaved spectrum (and make it available to applications such as wireless microphones for special events) and to ensure that the spectrum is made available to local TV groups on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. According to current proposals, Ofcom’s "band manager" would be required to allocate spectrum to special event organizers on fair and non-discriminatory terms but not to local TV groups. ULTV has protested this unfair condition. In contrast, FCC has clearly issued the "2nd report" to mandate the bidder of upper 700 MHz D block should apply to fair and non-discriminatory terms.

6. Technological challenges for accessing white space

In November 2008 the FCC issued an R&O on the unlicensed use of TV white space.18 The FCC regulated some vital requirements to rule the usage of TVWS in this document. These requirements impose technical challenges for the design of devices operating in TV white space spectrum, which brings new tough task for the innovation and production of WSD.19

These new rules provide an opportunity but they also introduce a number of technical challenges. The challenges require development of cognitive radio technologies like spectrum sensing as well as new wireless PHY and MAC layer designs. For example, the development of spectrum sensing techniques involves RF (Radio Frequency) design, robust signal processing, pattern recognition and networking protocols… etc.

The choice of RF architecture is no longer merely a hardware issue, but will directly affect the upper layer performance. Furthermore, these challenges include spectrum sensing of both TV signals and wireless microphone ones, frequency agile operation, geo-location, stringent spectral mask requirements, and of course the ability to provide reliable service in unlicensed and dynamically changing spectrum.20

In addition, the FCC has strict out-of-band emission (OOBE) requirements to prevent interference with licensed transmissions in other channels. A detailed description of these out-of-band emission requirements and their impact on the transmission spectral mask for WSD is provided in Section VII of the R&O.

Unfortunately, there are still other hurdles to be overcome. While the frequencies used by television stations do have a long reach and easily penetrate walls, it is important to remember that these signals are one-way communications, often broadcast from giant antennas at megawatts of power. For gadgets and computers, a much lower transmission power would be used, greatly decreasing the range of the White Space devices. So are we talking the Wi-Fi-like ranges here or 3G-like ranges? The National Association of Broadcasters has also questioned the ability of WSD to operate without interfering with television broadcasts. In addition, wireless microphones could be affected, although Google has proposed a "beacon" that could be utilized alongside existing wireless microphone equipment that would alert WSD not to operate on the same channel.

Last but not least, how to ensure QoS of WSD users is implicit trouble. The Cognitive Radio system should provide that fast, robust, coordinated sensing and quite periods and to protect incumbents as well as provide QoS. It will be a dilemma faced by the regulatory bodies and ICT industry. Another real-world problem is that there are no WSD for consumers and even if someone comes out with a new product, it will likely be very expensive since it isn’t widely produced,21 although Spectrum Bridge has proven one example mentioned above.

Nevertheless, some people still criticized what Spectrum Bridge has done probably could have used 5 GHz for the point-to-point backhaul connections. "The Smart City" is using Wi-Fi for the last mile rather than white spaces because there are no white space devices on the consumer end. Rick Rotondo, chief marketing officer for Spectrum Bridge argued Spectrum Bridge tried using Wi-Fi at 2.4GHz, 5GHz would never have made it; 2.4 didn’t make it. However, Spectrum Bridge did use Wi-Fi for the last hundred feet, not the last mile, but for the last hundred feet because there are Wi-Fi receivers built into laptops and smartphones and that’s who we wanted to be able to connect to this network. It sounds like a tautology.

7. What’s beyond the white space ?

What kind of ICT could people apply to after getting the white/interleaved space? "Super Wi-Fi" is the first application connected with white space. As Larry Page, co-founder of Google, has described that white spaces are like "Wi-Fi on steroids" linked up wireless internet with much faster speeds, stronger signals and more affordable costs. Besides, there are other advanced ICT could function via white space, such as LTE, IPTV, MediaFLO, DVB-H, ISDB-T, MVNO, ITS (DSRC) and so on.

8. Vision: Legal challenges for accessing white space in Taiwan

Although not mentioned above, FCC indeed allows the secondary-market of spectrum boosting in U.S. That’s an important reason, or motivation, to develop white space applications and regulations. In other words, the spectrum, not the license, could be auctioned, leased, retailed, weaved and so on. However, the regulatory mode of communication in Taiwan is "Vertical Regulatory Framework", which would be an obstacle to evolve the spectrum-usage in contrast to U.S and EU.

Under the interpretation of Legal Positivism, Taiwan Budget Act Article 94 states, "Unless otherwise provided for by law, grant of quota, frequency, or other limited or fixed amount special licenses shall be conducted by open auction or public invitation to tender and the proceeds of which shall be turned in to the national treasury." Hereby, the administration could really fulfill the legal assignment via public invitation to tender or auction for the "license", not the band. Nevertheless, the administration does not apply auction process to issue the licenses, but approaches the frequency licenses with "Radio and Television Act" and "Administrative Regulations on Radio Waves" which is promulgated under the Telecommunications Act in accordance with the first paragraph of 48, Section 1 of said Act instead.

Step closely, Radio and Television Act Article 4 firmly states, "The frequencies used by radio/television businesses are owned by the state and their allocation shall be planned by the MOTC in conjunction with the regulatory agency. The frequencies mentioned in the preceding paragraph may not be leased, loaned, or transferred. (emphasis added)". This article has resulted in inflexible use of spectrum, and dragged the collective use of spectrum, too. Undoubtedly, only we have to do is to amend the article for accessing white space in accordance with Legal Positivism.

Second, according to Administrative Regulations on Radio Waves, the National Communications Commission shall be responsible for the overall coordination and regulation of radio waves including radio frequencies, power, emission method and radio station identification call sign etc., which shall not be used or altered without approval. Thus, under the justice of legal system, NCC should revise the spectrum policy/regulations in harmony with Administrative Regulations on Radio Waves. For example, the Article 6 and 10 separately regulates, "The radio equipment shall adopt the latest technical advances to limit the number of frequencies and the frequency bandwidth used to the minimum essential for the necessary services. The frequency assigned to a station of a given service shall be separated from the limits of the band allocated to this service in such a way that, taking account of the frequency band assigned to a station, no harmful interference is caused to services to which frequency bands immediately adjoining are allocated." Therefore, WSD indeed, even necessarily, should be applied to band management and revolution of ICT industry.

Moreover, Central Regulation Standard Act Article 5 (embodied the principle of constitutional requirement of a specific enactment) also requires, "The following objects shall be stipulated by a statute: 1. It is required to stipulate by a statute as the Constitution or a statue expressly stipulated. 2. Stipulation concerns the rights or obligations of the people. 3. Stipulation concerns the organization of a government agency at national level. 4. Other objects with substantial importance shall be stipulated by a statute." The Legislative Yuan must consider to promote the status of Administrative Regulations on Radio Waves to Statue, which conforms to Constitutional requirement.

To sum up, Taiwan administration should take white space seriously, or ICT in Taiwan will be doomed as if getting lost in "space".

9. ad hoc Conclusion :Do not lock the door of white space

"Open access" is the most important canon in the usage of white space. In this meaning, there are two dimensions for open access. One is unlicensed band-usage, the other is unlicensed WSD which is also unlicensed and interlocks into different operators’ networks. The later is a big task in America. FCC’s decision was contested by the TV broadcasters who fear using the freed channels would interfered with TV signals and live singers who are using the same wave spaces.22 Larry Page also argued that unlicensed white spaces offer a way for the U.S. to catch up with the rest of the world in broadband access. Today, 10% of Americans still don't have access to DSL or cable broadband, according to consultancy Parks Associates.

Fortunately, the first steps towards white space communications have already been taken and FCC has approved unlicensed use of the spectrum, but FCC requires a database of all known licensed users to be deployed in order to prevent from interfering with the existing broadcasts and devices already using the space, such as licensed TV broadcasts and some wireless microphones

The second dimension is unlicensed WSD to compatible different network architecture. At first, the unlicensed devices must fit the criterion which could guarantee that they will not interfere with assigned broadcasts can use the empty white spaces in frequency spectrum. In order not to harm nearby transmission, the best way is to set a standard for WSD in one network built by certain operator. For example, if WSD users want to connect to Verizon Wireless’ network, s/he has to buy/use Verizon Wireless’ WSD. However, out of Verizon Wireless’ network, WSD users have to purchase/use another WSD. It will be inconvenient and raise the cost, but quench people’s desire to use WSD. As a result, FCC issued the R&O to prevent devices-locked, so-called "discriminatory QoS", from deploying the white space proposal. Accordingly, the mandatory rule indeed slows down the innovation of WSD.

Obviously, unlicensed use of the vacant TV channels is an economic and social revival waiting to happen in rural areas. In addition, white/interleaved space will manage to fit the core principle of modern spectrum-development, "collective and effective use". There are so many merits to share the "dividend", but at this time, we are still far away the real "white space". The situation in Taiwan is much worse unfortunately.

1.See FCC official document,http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-293891A1.pdf (last visited 03/05/2010)

2.OFDMA is a multi-user version of the popular Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) digital modulation scheme. Multiple access is achieved in OFDMA by assigning subsets of subcarriers to individual users. This allows simultaneous low data rate transmission from several users.

3.See Final Acts of the Regional Radio-communication Conference for planning of the digital terrestrial broadcasting service in parts of Regions 1 and 3, in the frequency bands 174-230 MHz and 470-862 MHz (RRC-06).

4.In the United States, the abandoned television frequencies are primarily in the upper UHF "700-megahertz" band, covering TV channels 52 to 69 (698 to 806 MHz).

5.See http://spectrumbridge.com/web/images/pdfs/smart_city-spectrumbridge.pdf visited on 2010/2/27.

6.http://spectrumbridge.com/web/

7.See http://showmywhitespace.com/portals/1/Spectrum%20Bridge%20Launches%20White%20Spaces%20Network%20In%20Wilmington-New%20Hanover%20County.pdf visited on 2010/2/27.

8.The group includes Microsoft, Google, Dell, HP, Intel, Philips, Earthlink, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics.

10.The standardization is another crucial issue but will not be discussed in detail hereunder.

11.In February 2009, Google joined Comsearch, Dell, HP, Microsoft, Motorola, and Neustar to form the White Spaces Database Working Group (WSDG), an effort to build such a database..

12.Actually, the database host will know where users are and the kit they're using, both of which are commercially valuable pieces of information. Google thinks that data will pay for the database, and Google is very good at extracting value from information; but even if it can't turn white space into gold, it will have five years to drive the competition out of business.

13.See generally Google’s proposal to FCC, http://www.scribd.com/doc/24784912/01-04-10-Google-White-Spaces-Database-Proposal visited on 2010/2/28.

14.Specifying clearly, the main mechanism of CR is including, but not limited to DSA.

15.Evolution of Cognitive Radio toward Cognitive Networks is under process, in which Cognitive Wireless Mesh Network (i.e. Cog-Mesh) is considered as one of the enabling candidates aiming at realizing this paradigm change.

16.Test conducted in the rural sector west of Ottawa, Canada. See C. R. Stevenson, G. Chouinard, W. Caldwell,Tutorial on the P802.22.2 PAR for :"Recommended Practice for the Installation and Deployment of IEEE 802.22 Systems," IEEE802, San Diego, CA, 7/17/06 http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/802_tutorials/july06/Rec-Practice_802.22_Tutorial.ppt.

17.United for Local Television ("ULTV") is a coalition of groups and campaigners who together lobby the government to recognize local TV as a public service. ULTV argues that all citizens should have access to local TV, no matter where they live, without having to subscribe to pay-TV or broadband. ULTV proposes that the government reserve capacity for local TV services on the most popular television platform in the UK today – digital terrestrial television (commonly known as "Freeview"). ULTV anticipates that local TV channels will provide local news and sport, together with a range of other local and networked programming. ULTV envisages local TV services would also provide local advertising, for the first time offering a cost-effective option for many local businesses seeking to advertise on terrestrial TV in their target market.

18.See Second Report and Order and Memorandum Opinion and Order In the Matter of Unlicensed Operation in the TV Broadcast Bands, Additional Spectrum for Unlicensed Devices Below 900 MHz and in the 3 GHz Band, Federal Communication Commission, Document 08-260, Nov. 14, 2008.

19.In detail, the FCC distinguished fixed WSD from portable one. There are different restrictions and requirements between them.

20.See http://ita.ucsd.edu/workshop/09/files/paper/paper_1500.pdf visited on 2010/2/20.

21.See http://www.digitalmediabuzz.com/2010/03/broadband-debate-white-space/ visited on 2010/3/17.

22.See http://lasarletter.net/docs/nabpet4review.pdf visited on 2010/2/25.

※The effective and innovative way to use the spectrum: focus on the development of the "interleaved/white space",STLI, https://stli.iii.org.tw/en/article-detail.aspx?no=105&tp=2&i=169&d=6125 (Date:2021/12/06)
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Furthermore, the submission of the strategy has identified government’s responsibility in the development of information security Therefore, a division which is solely responsible for information security was established in the Cabinet Secretariat and is devoted to the development of it. In 2005, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) amended the Comprehensive Strategy on Information Security and announced the First National Strategy on Information Security based on the creation of a policy of a long-term information security task in Japan which is also the foundation for the policy of guidelines and action security concerning critical information infrastructure. This is in addition to being the most important basis for the policy of information security development. The strategy is different from the Comprehensive Strategy on Information Security in connotation. 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According to the strategy, the METI established the Information Security Policy Council (ISPC) and the National Information Security Center (NISC) under the subordination of the Cabinet Secretariat in order to reach a goal of dependable society of information security.1 Finally, the information security policies more directly related with the CIIP are the Action Plan on Information Security Measures for Critical Infrastructure and the Standards for Information Security Measures for the Central Government Computer Systems, both of which regulate CI-related threats, information security standards, public-private partnership information sharing system, and the levels of information security standards between different governments and critical infrastructures, respectively. 3. 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(3) Basic Law on Formation of an Advanced Information and Telecommunication Network Society of 2001 Through the formulation of the Basic Law on Formation of an Advanced Information and Telecommunication Network Society, the legal basis to execute an information technology policy is enhanced, and the direction and job content for the government to execute this policy is explicitly stated. 1.http://www.nisc.go.jp/eng/pdf/national_strategy_001_eng.pdf(last accessed date: 2009/07/20). 2.http://www.nisc.go.jp/en/sisaku/h1310action.html(last accessed date: 2009/07/20).

 Artificial Intelligence Governance - Taking Deep Fake as an Example

Artificial Intelligence Governance - Taking Deep Fake as an Example 1.Introduction 　　With the increasing maturity of the use of neural networks, the application of artificial intelligence technologies is becoming more and more widely used. Among them, through the automated editor and convolutional neural network technology, the threshold of the technology of copying films is not very high. In November 2017, some films that superimpose the faces of social celebrities on pornographic film actors/actresses appeared in the American social networking platform, Reddit. These types of films analyze the faces of specific socialites through deep learning algorithms and superimpose their faces on the films, making them look as if the films were taken by the socialites themselves. This technology was released by developers in 2018 and was made into an app for public use. At present, such technology is generally referred to as "deep fake" internationally, and it is believed that it may contribute to the speedy invention and distribution of false information existing throughout the Internet nowadays, which has attracted the attention of legislators worldwide. As it uses fake images or films automatically generated by Deep-learning technology, it involves both dimensions of fake information prevention and artificial intelligence governance. The purpose of this paper is to observe the relevant policies, legal measures and related guidelines or principles of the international community in response to issues of deep fake and artificial intelligence governance, and to examine whether the current legal system in Taiwan can cope with the impact of deep fake so as to provide feasible recommendations. 2.Ethics Rules for Artificial Intelligence 　　In the governance of artificial intelligence, the European Union introduced the “Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI” on April 8, 2019 to establish a framework for supervising artificial intelligence in order to make artificial intelligence trustable. 　　The guidelines first points out that Trustworthy AI requires three key characteristics: (1) it should be lawful: complying with all applicable laws and regulations; (2) it should be ethical: ensuring adherence to ethical principles and values; and (3) it should be robust: both from a technical and social perspective, to avoid AI from inadvertently causing harm. 　　Fundamental Rights are the basis of trustworthy AI. In order to comply with the above-mentioned basic human rights and to make AI reliable, their expert group believes that AI should abide by four ethical principles, including: (1) respect for human autonomy; (2) prevention of harm; (3) fairness; and (4) explicability. The four ethical principles are also transformed into the seven specific measures: “human agency and oversight”, “technical robustness and safety”, “privacy and data governance”, “transparency”, “diversity, non-discrimination and fairness”, “societal and environmental wellbeing impact evaluation” and “AI accountability”. To facilitate the true implementation of self-assessment for application developers, the Guidelines devise the Trustworthy AI Assessment List in Chapter 4 for the reference of the enterprise. 3.Counter measures Against the International false messages 　　In response to the prevention of false messages, the two parties in the United States also jointly proposed in 2018 the Malicious Deep Fake Prohibition Act of 2018 to amend the relevant provisions of fraud in the criminal law. This bill amends Chapter 47 of the United States Code by adding Section 1041 with regard to fraud in connection with audiovisual records. It treats the use of deep fake as a criminal offence and defines deep fake as “audiovisual record created or altered in a manner that the record would falsely appear to a reasonable observer to be an authentic record of the actual speech or conduct of an individual”. It shall be unlawful to, using any means or facility of interstate or foreign commerce, to create, with the intent to distribute, a deep fake with the intent that the distribution of the deep fake would facilitate criminal or tortious conduct; or distribute an audiovisual record with actual knowledge that the audiovisual record is a deep fake, and the intent that the distribution of the audiovisual record would facilitate criminal or tortious conduct. Any person who violates the above may be sentenced to imprisonment for more than 2 years but less than 10 years. However, the bill is currently put on hold without being further reviewed. 　　In addition, in order to properly cope with the danger of deep fake, on June 28, 2019, the two parties in the US Congress jointly proposed the bill - "To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to publish an annual report on the use of deep fake technology, and for other purposes”, which may be cited as the "Deepfakes Report Act of 2019". This bill requires the Department of Homeland Security to conduct research on deep fake and related issues, produce an annual report, and to request it to assess the direction of addition or revision of relevant laws and regulations. Moreover, the US senators from both parties also proposed on June 12, 2019 the bill- “Defending Each and Every Person from False Appearances by Keeping Exploitation Subject to Accountability Act of 2019”, which may be cited as “DEEP FAKES Accountability Act”. This Act is the same as the Act of 2018, both of which treat the use of deep fake as a fraudulent act by adding section 1041 to Chapter 47 of the United States Code. However, this Act does not directly define deep fake, but rather define such a type of technology as “advanced technological false personation record”, and require such records to comply with: (1) DIGITAL WATERMARK: Any advanced technological false personation record which contains a moving visual element shall contain an embedded digital watermark clearly identifying such record as containing altered audio or visual elements. (2) AUDIOVISUAL DISCLOSURE shall comply with the following principles: A. clearly articulated verbal statement that identifies the record as containing altered audio and visual elements, and a concise description of the extent of such alteration; and B. an unobscured written statement in clearly readable text appearing at the bottom of the image throughout the duration of the visual element that identifies the record as containing altered audio and visual elements, and a concise description of the extent of such alteration. (3) VISUAL DISCLOSURE shall comply with the following principles: Any advanced technological false personation records exclusively containing a visual element shall include an unobscured written statement in clearly readable text appearing at the bottom of the image throughout the duration of the visual element that identifies the record as containing altered visual elements, and a concise description of the extent of such alteration. (4) AUDIO DISCLOSURE shall comply with the following principles: Any advanced technological false personation records exclusively containing an audio element shall include, at the beginning of such record, a clearly articulated verbal statement that identifies the record as containing altered audio elements and a concise description of the extent of such alteration, and in the event such record exceeds two minutes in length, not less than 1 additional clearly articulated verbal statement and additional concise description at some interval during each two-minute period thereafter. 　　According to the bill, those who violate the above requirements shall be subject to legal responsibilities. In criminal liabilities, whoever knowingly violates the above requirements and (1) with the intent to humiliate or otherwise harass the person falsely exhibited, provided the advanced technological false personation record contains sexual content of a visual nature and appears to feature such person engaging in such sexual acts or in a state of nudity; (2) with the intent to cause violence or physical harm, incite armed or diplomatic conflict, or interfere in an official proceeding, including an election, provided the advanced technological false personation record did in fact pose a credible threat of instigating or advancing such; (3) in the course of criminal conduct related to fraud, including securities fraud and wire fraud, false personation, or identity theft; or (4) by a foreign power, or an agent thereof, with the intent of influencing a domestic public policy debate, interfering in a Federal, State, local, or territorial election, or engaging in other acts which such power may not lawfully undertake, may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than 5 years. In civil liabilities, any person who violates the above requirements may be subject to a civil penalty of up to US$150,000 per record or alteration, as well as the compensation for the damage, if any. 　　In addition to the United States, the United Kingdom also launched the "Online Harms White Paper" in April 2019, which will establish a new "Online Safety" control structure to respond to false messages and underage pornographic videos, deep fake and online drug trafficking and so on. 　　The report points out that the new network security control framework will clarify the legal obligations of the Internet company to make the company assume more security responsibilities and avoid the harm caused by the content or actions generated by the service provided, and establish an independent regulatory agency supervising and implementing the relevant legal policies. The regulatory authority should provide relevant guidelines for compliance with the new obligations. If the company is unwilling to comply with the relevant guidelines, it must bear the burden of proof and prove that its alternative measures can achieve more effectively for the purpose of protecting the Internet users. In addition, the framework will also include elements of “Transparency, Trust, and Accountability”. The competent authority will be given the right to request an annual transparency report be submitted by the company, which the report should indicate the relevant harmful contents appeared on its platform, explain how it is handling with the problem, and publish the report on the website. Furthermore, the competent authority will have the right to request additional information from the Internet company, such as how its algorithm works. 　　In response to false messages, the report points out that current Internet companies have begun to conduct research on the prevention and control methods of fake news dissemination, including: (1) through the terms of service, users are not allowed to distort their identity on social software to spread false messages. (2) developing relevant tools to detect suspicious, false or junk accounts; (3) using automated artificial intelligence to delete or remove fake accounts; and (4) collaborating with independent fact verifying platforms. However, in the future, the government hopes that the guidelines and related policies proposed by the competent authorities must further include the following matters: (1) The company shall clarify its definition of false information in its terms of service, and state its expectations of users, and the possible penalties to users who violate the company policy; (2) The company should adopt the relevant countermeasures to deal with users with distorted identities who disseminate false messages; (3) The visibility of the disputed content currently under the fact-verifying inspection shall be reduced; (4) The fact-verifying service shall be used, especially during the election period, for fulfilling the obligation of fact verification; (5) Promote authoritative news sources; (6) Promote news circulation from different perspectives, rather than only reinforce the messages of people's existing views; (7) Users should be able to recognize that they are interacting with automated accounts and should ensure that the dissemination of automated accounts information is not abused; (8) Promote the transparency of political advertising to comply with the norms of the UK electoral law; (9) Companies should ensure that users may mark the content that they believe to be false news by themselves and let them know that the company is targeting false news for countermeasures to be taken; (10) The procedures for publishing information should be open and transparent so that the public can assess the effectiveness of the company’s response to false information, and further support the relevant research on online false message activities; (11) The relevant procedures and measures should be taken to continuously monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the processing flow of fake messages. 　　From the above-mentioned relevant international legal policy observations, it can be found that international measures related to deep fake can be classified into the following items: (1) Establish an independent fact-verifying unit. (2) Improve the transparency of information sources. (3) Improve the oversight responsibility of the online platform for the messages appeared on such a platform. (4) Deep fake is to be treated as an independent criminal act and its criminal, civil and administrative responsibilities are to be clearly regulated. (5) On the technical level, relevant artificial intelligence tools are being developed to respond to this issue. For example, the American startup company, Deeptrace, has begun to conduct research and develop deep fake identification technology to identify the authenticity of the films.

Development Trend of Information Communication Technology Related Laws

In light of the influence on social security of Internet-related crime, in 2007 Taiwan passed the amendment to the Communication Protection and Inspection Act (CPIA) to update the articles relating to the surveillance of Internet-related crimes. Moreover, the notification obligator clause was added to the Child and Adolescent Sex Trade Prevention ACT (CASTPA), and the penalty for copyright infringement over the Internet was prescribed in the Copyright Act in order to stop Internet-related crimes. 1. Amendment to the CPIA On 15 June 2007, the legislature of Taiwan passed the amendment to the CPIA which was promulgated by the President of Republic of China on 11 July 2007. The amendment mainly concerns the update of the power of issuing surveillance warrants, the scope of emergency surveillance, the supervisory agencies of relevant surveillance activities, and the evidence power of illegal surveillance. The amendment will be brought into force in five months. Currently, a surveillance warrant is issued (1) by the district prosecutor following an application made by the police or based on his authority for cases under investigation; and (2) by the judge based on his power for cases on trial. According to Article 5.2 of the amended CPIA, for cases under investigation, the district prosecutor should record the details of surveillance in writing following the applications made by the judiciary police or based on his authority and should state the reasons and submit relevant documents before applying to the jurisdiction court for the issue of the surveillance warrant. The district prosecutor should approve and reply to the applications made by the judiciary police within 2 hours. For cases of greater complexity, the approval and reply time may be extended for another 2 hours with the consent of the chief district prosecutor. After receiving an application for a surveillance warrant from the district prosecutor, the jurisdiction court should approve and reply to the application within 24 hours. For cases on trial, a surveillance warrant should be issued by the judge based on his authority. Also, the judge may give appropriate instructions for the surveillance in the warrant. Moreover, if an application for a surveillance warrant is rejected by the court, the district prosecutor should make no objection in any form. In other words, the power of issuing a surveillance warrant for cases under investigation has been transferred from the district prosecutor to the judge. Furthermore, the law-enforcement authorities are given the right to initiate an “emergency surveillance” before application during the investigation of serious criminal cases according to Article 6 of the CPIA. In an investigation of serious criminal cases involving obstruction of voting, kidnapping, offence of the President and Vice President Election and Recall Act, the judiciary police may request the district prosecutor to orally notify the implemental authorities of an emergency surveillance. However, the district prosecutor should report to the jurisdiction court to apply for a make-up issue of the surveillance warrant within 24 hours. The district prosecutor’s office should appoint a responsible district prosecutor or a head district prosecutor as the emergency contact for cases involving emergency surveillance. The court should also assign a special window to take charge of the applications for surveillance warrants made by the district prosecutor, and should issue a make-up surveillance warrant within 48 hours of the acceptance of the application. Should the make-up surveillance warrant not be issued within 48 hours, the emergency surveillance should be terminated immediately. The district prosecutor, the court of law and agencies taking charge of the country’s intelligence work are responsible for the supervision of surveillance. According on Articles 12 and 16 of the amended CPIA, regulations governing the period and supervision of surveillance are summarized as follows: (1) The period of surveillance should not exceed 30 days for serious and emergency cases involving endangering national security or social order and blackmailing as in Article 5 of the CPIA; or for cases involving obstruction of voting, kidnapping and offence of the President and Vice President Election and Recall Act as in Article 6 of the CPIA. The responsibility of supervision is the district prosecutor's office for cases under investigation and the court of law for cases on a trial. (2) The period of surveillance should not exceed 1 year for collecting information of foreign powers or offshore opposing powers as in Article 7 of the CPIA. Intelligence authorities should send agents to supervise the electronic surveillance equipment or to the supplier of surveillance equipment to supervise the conditions of surveillance. Should continual surveillance be needed, the implemental agency should submit concrete reasons to make a second application for surveillance two days before the end of the first surveillance period. However, the surveillance should be terminated immediately when the chief of the intelligence agency believes that it is no need to continue the surveillance before the end of the surveillance period. Lastly, the exclusivity of the evidence power of information collected from illegal surveillance is added to Articles 5, 6, 7 and 32 of the amended CPIA. According to Articles 5 and 6, should the surveillance involve severe offence of regulations, the information or evidence collected from the surveillance will not be accepted as evidence in a judiciary investigation, a trial or relevant procedure. Additionally, according to Articles 7 and 32, information or evidence collected from illegal surveillance will not be accepted as evidence in a judiciary investigation, a trial or relevant procedure. The severity of the offence should be determined by the judge based on individual cases. 2. Amendment to the CASTPA Child pornography is easily distributed because of the advancement of Internet communication; and the prepubescent pornography market is expanding as a result. The legislature of Taiwan thus passed on 15 June 2007 the amendment to the CASTPA that was promulgated by the President of Republic of China on 4 July 2007. In the amendment, neighborhood heads, ISPs and telecommunication system providers are the obligator of notification, and “possessors” of child pornography are to be penalized. According to the explanatory statement of the act, child pornography is the permanent record of the abuse of the victims. This will inflict continual damage on the victims. Moreover, child pornography is considered a “serious child exploitation” all over the world. Therefore, there is an international understanding to penalize the possession of child pornography. Before the amendment, Article 28 of the statue simply penalizes people distributing and selling child pornography in the form of disc, videotape and printing. Those deliberately distributing, broadcasting and/or selling child pornography in the form of pictures, videotape, film, disc, electronic signal or other form will be penalized by imprisonment for a term of less than 2 years and with a fine of under NT$2 million. [In the amendment,] those deliberately distributing, broadcasting and/or selling child pornography are penalized and imprisonment for a term of less than 3 years and with a fine of under NT$5 million. While child pornography inflicts continual damage on the victims, Article 28.3 has been added to statute. According to this new Article, those in possession without a proper reason of pictures, films, videotapes, discs, electromagnetic recordings and/or other articles containing sexual intercourses or acts of indecency by people under 18 are to be penalized. In this case, the “possession” of child pornography is penalized. The penalization falls into two stages: competent authorities of municipalities and local counties and cities may order the offender to receive guidance education for 2-10 hours if he/she is detected possessing child pornography without a proper reason for the first time; if offenders are detected for the second time or more, they will be fined NT$20000 to NT$200000. The amendment also refers to the legislation in Canada and the Netherland to reduce the scope of “proper reasons for possession” to scientific study, education and for medical treatment purposes in order to protect prepubescent children from sexual exploitation. Moreover, the amendment has expanded the scope of the notification obligator by including ISPs and telecommunication system providers as the notification obligator. While the Internet and mobile phones are widely used by the public and prepubescent children often receive pornographic information via the chat rooms on the Internet and SMS, this will cause many side effects on prepubescent children in the absence of appropriate management and protection. According to the statistics provided by the Ministry of the Interior, about 300 prepubescent children are sexually assaulted every year from online dating. According to The Garden of Hope Foundation, 40% of sex trade with prepubescent girls found in Taipei County during 2003-5 was conducted over the Internet, and it was 100% for prepubescent boys. It is thus clear that the Internet has become a platform for distributing child pornography. ISPs and telecommunication system providers are included as the notification obligator in Article 9 of the amended statute. Therefore, if they do not notify the authorities in the knowledge of child pornography, they will be fined NT$6000-NT$30000 according to Article 36 of the statue. Therefore, neighborhood heads, ISPs and telecommunication system providers must notify the local competent authorities or authorities specified in Article 6 of any prepubescent children who engage or probably engage in the sex trade in their knowledge. This is designed in order to strengthen the notification and prevention functions and to effectively stop those who deliberately use chat rooms on the Internet and SMS to engage in true sex trade in the disguise of online dating. Though the scope of notification obligation has been expanded in the amendment to the CASTPA to strengthen the notification and prevention mechanisms of prepubescent children sex trade and to define the notification obligations of the supplier and provider of SMS, network chat rooms, BBS, blogs and e-news services, many problems arise as a result. First, when telecommunication system providers have the obligation of notification, they also need to submit relevant evidence. However, this may involve the infringement of privacy of communication. If telecommunication system providers must not commit illegal surveillance, they are unable to acknowledge the contents of communication of consumers. In this case, how can they notify any crime? On the other hand, though information over the Internet is open to the public, it is a tough question for law enforcement officers to provide solid evidence proving that the administrator of online chat rooms and blogs has failed to perform his obligation of notification. 3. Amendment to the Copyright Act The online music downloading service debate has become a heated issue in recent years for the following reasons: “to select only the songs I like”, “comprehensive repertoires”, and “convenience”. According to the Online Music Downloading Survey by the Secure Online Shopping Association (SOSA), 85% consumers have tried the online music downloading service, thus giving rise to the comprehensive online music downloading software and services. However, to attract consumers with files containing unlicensed music, video or other files and charge users of such services, some ISPs provide computer programs or technologies, e.g. point-to-point (P2P), for users to exchange such outlawed materials and charge users for such services. Such acts of making profit from copyright infringement has inflicted disputes in copyright infringement. For example, the IFPI’s accusation in 2003 of Kuro, a P2P platform provider, is the first convicted case of P2P music downloading service in Taiwan. Though the software supplied by Kuro is a neutral technology which is not illegal, Kuro recruited members and charged them membership fees for allowing them to illegally downloading, exchanging and reproducing a large amount of unlicensed copyrighted materials with such software and the platform services it supplies. Kuro also advertised that consumers can download tens of thousands of the latest popular songs with the Kuro software and even encouraged members to download them. Therefore, the court decided that Kuro and its members who have practically downloaded copyrighted music illegally are guilty of copyright infringement. On the other hand, ezPeer, another P2P downloading platform provider, was not found guilty of copyright infringement because no law was practiced at that time to prohibit or restrict the use of P2P software. Also, as a transfer platform, ezPeer offers comprehensive functions and it is thus not a tool for committing crime. Even some users transfer or download unlicensed copyrighted materials with this tool, there is possibility for the non-liability reasonable use. Moreover, ISPs have no filtering obligations in the Copyright Act of the ROC. Therefore, even consumers may use the services for illegal activities, P2P service providers are not an accomplice. Therefore, to define the liabilities of P2P platform providers, the legislature of Taiwan passed on 14 June 2007 the amendment to the Copyright Act to include P2P software providers in governance of the act. In the future, platform providers will be prohibited by the Copyright Act from charging members for unlicensed activities. New objects of copyright infringement are added to the amendment, and the amendment includes the addition of Article 87.1.7, 87.1.2, and 97.1; and the revision of Article 93.4. According to Article 87.1.7, attempt to allow the public to openly transfer or reproduce works of others without prior consent or licensing from the owner is copyright infringement, and supply of computer programs and/or technologies that can be used for public transfer and/or reproduction of such for the purpose of making profits is deemed as copyright infringement. As the supplier of computer programs and/or technologies is the focus of this article, behaviors categorized based on this article must also meet the following requirements: (1) attempt to allow the public to download and/or transfer over the Internet copyrighted materials without prior consent or licensing of the copyright owner; (2) the act of supply of computer programs and/or technologies; (3) and making profits from such behaviors. In other words, the focus of the amendment is to prohibit providers by written law from supplying computer programs and/or technologies for users to transfer and/or exchange unlicensed music, video and/or other copyrighted materials and from charging users or making profits from such services. However, the amendment has adopted the principle of technology neutrality and specifies that P2P software providers will only be penalized when they have the act of making profit and the intention of copyright infringement in order not to prevent technological development and to save ISPs from breaking the law all the time. As the “intention” of copyright infringement is the criterion of judgment, Article 87.2 is added to the Copyright Act in the present amendment. According to this article, whether or not the doer instigates, guides or incites in advertisements or other active actions the public to use the computer programs and/or other technologies it supplies to commit copyright infringement is the criterion for determining the “intention” of copyright infringement. Also, the court will determine with severity whether or not the advertisements or other active actions are ready for instigating, guiding or inciting the public use the computer programs and/or other technologies the doer supplies to commit copyright infringement. In general, when providers offer services, such as web photo albums, BBS, instant messengers, auctions, web disks and online discussions, it is not their initial intention to supply software and/or technologies for users to illegally download and/or transfer the copyrighted materials of others, nor do they encourage, instigate, guide, incite and/or convince users to commit copyright infringement. Even such software can be used for transferring and/or distributing unlicensed copyrighted materials, providers must not be restricted, and it should be the users who take the liability of copyright infringement. After the enactment of the amendment, providers who make profit from supplying software for others to distribute unlicensed copyrighted materials and encourage users to exchange such materials with the software are to be penalized by imprisonment for a term of less than 2 years, community service, or fined, or penalty together with a find of under NT$500000 according to Article 93. Moreover, by adding Article 97.1, the competent authorities are entitled to order ISPs to shutdown or close the business when they are convicted for the abovementioned offences and refuse to stop such illegal acts after being determined for “severe copyright infringement” and “severely injury of the benefits of the copyright owner”. After this amendment of the Copyright Act, service providers can no longer use the excuse “we simply provide a service platform and have no right to check the behavior of consumers” as an escape of their liabilities. In fact, P2P service providers who charge users monthly fees for the P2P software, such as Kuro and ezPeer, have already signed licensing agreements with music companies before the enactment of this amendment. Therefore, the music they provide for users to download is no more unlicensed copyrighted materials. Therefore, the amendment has certain effect on improving copyright protection.

Open Government Data in Taiwan

In the recent years, the tide of open movement has pushed vigorously from the open source software, open hardware and the recent open data. More and more countries have joined the global initiative of open government data in order to achieve the ultimate goal to promote the democratic governance. National government adopts open data policy to enhance the transparency, participation and collaboration of the citizen into the government operation. Meanwhile, fueled by the knowledge economy and the statistical analysis of the big data technology, open government data could work as the catalyst to individuals, industries and government agencies to transform data into potential knowledge-based services. Up to the end of 2013, there are around 77 countries have adopted the Open Government Data policy. Taiwanese government also declared to take part in the open data revolution. The government had officially launched the open data policy in 2012. In Resolution No. 3322, the Executive Yuan prescribes that open government data could enhance the transparency of the government; improve the quality of life of people; and meet the needs of the industry. Governmental agencies under the authority of the Executive Yuan shall to recognize the importance of the empowerment brought from open government data to the quality of the decision-making process and asked the agencies to implemented the policy from the perspectives of the user’s needs and applications, and also the consider to include machine readable format for the data. The Executive Yuan directed the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC)（行政院研究發展考核委員會） to develop related principles and measures to support government agencies of the Executive Yuan to plan, execute and open up their data. At the same time, it also directed the Industrial Development Bureau（IDB）, Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) （經濟部工業局）to develop responsive strategies to cope with the industrial development. Pursuant to the Resolution No. 3322 of the Executive Yuan, RDEC worked through the open government data related laws and regulations, proclaimed the “Open Government Data Operating Principle for Agencies of the Executive Yuan”（行政院及所屬各級機關政府資料開放作業原則）and the “Essential Requirements for Administrate Open Government Data Datasets” （政府資料開放資料集管理要項）in the early 2013. All government agencies of the Executive Yuan have to adopted the following 3 open government data steps："open up government data for public use”, “provide data free of charge subject to certain exemptions”, "automated systematic release and exchange data”, and work in with 4 open government focus strategies: “release data actively and by the priority in the field of daily necessity”, “develop the norm of open government data”, “promote the use of Data.gov.tw”, and “demonstrate and advocate open government data services”. Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) （經濟部工業局）also provided grants ($9,200 NTD) to the open government data value-added applications and development. The open government data platform (data.gov.tw) was launched in July, 2013, as the official Taiwan government site providing public access and reuse of government data sets from 62 government agencies of the Executive Yuan, including the Ministry of Interior (MOI)（內政部）, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)（外交部）, Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA)（經濟部）, Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD)（行政院經濟建設發展委員會）, Hakka Affairs Council (HAC)（客家委員會）, Water Resources Agency, Ministry of Economic Affairs (WRA) （經濟部水利署）, and 4 local governments. At the end of 2013, each government agency is required to release at least 55 data sets. In addition, the rising tide of private-sector (individual or enterprise) also aims to mine the gold in open government data. Act upon the National Information and Communication Initiative (NICI)（行政院國家資訊通信發展推動小組）in the consultation of the open government data policy, Taipei Computer Association (TCA)（台北市電腦同業工會）organized the “Open Data Alliance” (ODA)（Open Data聯盟）as a bridge between the information provide-side (public sectors) and the demand-side (private sectors), to communicate and coordinate the expectations and needs from communities (bottom-up) towards open government data. On Dec. 11, 2013, Taiwan took one more step in the global open data initiative. Open Data Alliance (ODA) and the Open Data Institute (ODI) in UK signed the memorandum of understanding (MOU) and announced the alliance established to promote and explore the potential opportunities of open data holds for the public, private and academic sectors. The engagement of ODA and ODI could bring another catalyst for the open movement in Taiwan to take one big step in the international community. According to a survey from ODA, the biggest challenge so far is the available data sets do not really meet the needs of the industry. And most of the feedback reflects the concerns in licensing, charge, frequency of updates, data formats and data quality. These voices echo the open government data issues encountered in many countries. There are still some obstacles with the applicable laws and regulations (for example, Charges and Fees Act, Personal Data Protection Act, Accoutability & Liability etc.) wait to be solved before both public and private sectors to go onto the next level of open data development.
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