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Quarterly Legal Newswire,Mar 2017 NO.01
LATEST LEGAL NEWS
THE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL DRAFTED THE TECHNOLOGY TALENTS RECRUITING ACT.

The National Development Council (NDC) is promoting the specific act for recruiting talents. Ming-hsin Kung, the vice agency of NDC, said that the draft of the Act of Recruiting and Hiring Foreign Talents would be under the review of the Legislative Yuan at the end of March, and would attempt to recruit talents in Silicon Valley and Japan.

For reforming the economic structure, the Government drafted the Act of Recruiting and Hiring Foreign Talents, and makes it to be reviewed prior in the Legislative Yuan.

Ming-hsin Kung said, this specific act for recruiting talents is considered very important by the President of the Executive Yuan, Chuan Lin. The act is now under the step of collecting opinions. He hopes that the act could be the accelerator of the “5+2” industry.

He also said, the act is only the first step of building the friendly environment to recruiting talents. If the act would be adopted, the NDC would start the plan of recruiting talents, including setting a single window, recruiting talents for the “5+2” industry by the benefits of the act, and Silicon Valley would be an important site.

Take the “Asian Silicon Valley” plan as example, Kung said, it´s planned to develop IoT and innovation, and the connection to Silicon Valley is emphasized. The plan has an operation center, which includes a Chief Investment Officer, a Chief Technology Officer, and a Chief Human Resource Officer. All they could go to Silicon Valley to do the recruiting.
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THE TAIWANESE VERSION OF REGULATORY SANDBOX IS EXPECTABLE

Recently, the regulatory sandbox is a hot topic in Taiwan. In view of the regulatory sandbox in UK and Singapore, and due to the struggling experience of developing fintech in the outdated legal environment in the past few years, the technology industries and the public urged the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) to provide the Taiwanese version of fintech regulatory sandbox. Therefore, in August 2016, the Taiwan Government started to collect public opinions about fintech regulatory sandbox through the vTaiwan online plateform . After a series of seminars and meetings, the FSC published the draft of the fintech regulatory sandbox regulation 金融科技創新實驗條例(Fintech Innovation Experiment Act) on January 12, 2017.

According to the section 3 of the draft, the governing activity “innovation experiment” means “financial industry or non-financial industry test the financial activities which should be granted by the authority(FSC), under the conditions approved by the authority.” Both natural person and legal person could apply for the “innovation experiment”. Once the applicant filed the application, which lists the details of the experiment and the involved regulations, the authority should make the decision in 60 days.

According to the section 8 of the draft published in January 12, 2017, the sandbox testing period would last for 6 months, and could be expanded for another 3 months by application. However, this section aroused a great dispute recently. Lots of the fintech participants hold that 6 months period is too short. So in the last public hearing of the daft, which was held on January 24, 2017, FSC decided to expand the testing period to 1 year (6 months plus the expanded 6 months). In addition, the window period after the innovation experiment ended and before the outdated regulation be updated is another disputed point. Regarding to this issue, FSC declared that the applicant may grant a financial license even the fintech product or service is not allowed by the current regulations, and FSC will issue a new instrument or revise current regulations for the new fintech service or product.

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EXECUTIVE YUAN PROPOSE AMENDMENT TO STATUTE FOR INDUSTRIAL INNOVATION, USING TAXATION RELIEF ELEVATING THE LEVEL OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT

On February 23rd, 2017, the Executive Yuan submitted the proposal of amendment to the Statute for Industrial Innovation to the Legislative Yuan for its review. In response to the change of environment, cooperating with the needs of elevating the level of industrial development, 18 articles were revised in the amendment. Furthermore, the proposed amendment is also listed as one of the priority bills by the Executive Yuan.

According to a press release from the Executive Yuan, Premier Lin Chuan (林全) has indicated that the amendment of the Statute for Industrial Innovation is crucial to the industry of entrepreneurship. Therefore, he had requested the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Finance to proactively communicate with the Legislative Yuan, so the proposed amendment can be smoothly passed. The Convener of the Economics Committee of the Legislative Yuan, Legislator Gao Jyh-peng, has also mentioned in an press interview that the Statute for Industrial Innovation is a bill of economic importance, which can create a friendly environment for innovation once it is passed. If everything goes well, the amendment can go forward at a swift pace.

The Executive Yuan version of the amendment bill has four major points, includes enhancing the input into R&D by the state-run business, postponing the levies on the assignment or licensing of R&D results of universities and of research institutes, the tax reforms of venture capital business with the composition of limited partnership, tax credits for the investment of high risks. In addition, in order to keep the talents, how to encourage the employers to participate in the running of the companies has also become one of the main focuses of this amendment. Allowing the employers awarded with stocks to enjoy delayed payment of their taxes, for example, has also been incorporated.

Moreover, the Ministry of Economic Affairs has pointed out that the Statute for Industrial Innovation has come into force for more than six years, creating significant effects in terms of promoting the innovation of the industry. However, principal countries in the world have been increasing their efforts in the regards of promoting the innovation of the industry. Additionally, the private enterprises have been demanding the government to create a better environment for the industries, facilitating new businesses and investment in the hope that the level of industrial development can accordingly be elevated and transformed. These are the main reasons why the amendment that partially revising the Statute for Industrial Innovation has been proposed.

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THE EXECUTIVE YUAN APPROVED THE “FORWARD-LOOKING INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM” TO BUILD THE INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDED FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

The government is planning to promote the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program that the goal is to address economic development needs for the next 30 years. The program contains five major elements: safe and convenient rail services, water resource management in response to climate change, green energy construction to support environmental sustainability, digital infrastructure for smart spatial planning, and urban-rural infrastructure construction that enhances regional balance.

Looking forward to the future that sharing resources more effectively and reducing regional disparities, which needs a more convenient and comprehensive public transportation system including rail infrastructure, major arteries, and optimized intercity traffic and mass rapid transit systems. In response to climate change, transform the energy industry and realize a nuclear-free nation, the nation must also create a resilient, sustainable natural environment and a green-energy and low-carbon society. For the lifestyles and industries are transformed by digital technology, the nation must enhance both digital infrastructure and applications to safeguard citizens’ right to internet access, while alleviating regional disparities and diversifying urban and rural infrastructure.

The digital infrastructure for smart spatial plan calls for “a next-generation research and smart lifestyle environment”, “science park bases for smart robot innovators and makers”, and “facilities and service platforms for the domestic manufacturing of high-level research instruments”. After the basic infrastructure that is time to build an artificial intelligence environment in place, “a cloud services and high-speed computing platform” will also be required to support scientific research and intelligent learning functions. This kind of infrastructure will help the younger generation acquire core knowledge. In addition to creating new services to support “open government and smart urban-rural services”, the government will integrate inter-government resources to set up a “smart living internet-of-things platform” that will provide important public services such as air quality monitoring, earthquake early-warning information, disaster relief and reporting, and water resource management.

By green energy construction issues will create a sustainable environment, the government is promoting “a two-year solar power technology platform program” that aims to increase total installed capacity to 20 gigawatts (GW) by 2025 (17 GW for ground-level systems, 3 GW for rooftop systems). The total installed capacity target for wind power is 4.2 GW (1.2 GW for land-based systems, 3 GW for offshore systems) by the year 2025, which will include underwater piers and related facilities. The government will also set up a marine technology industrial innovation zone in Kaohsiung to assemble and manufacture offshore wind turbine related vessels, as well as an offshore wind power industrial zone in the Port of Taichung.

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RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

LEAKING OF PRIVATE SEXUAL MATERIAL--A STUDY ON THE CRIMINALIZATION OF NONCONSENSUAL PORNOGRAPHY IN TAIWAN: EVIDENCE FROM THE U.S. LEGISLATION

Abstract

For digital natives born after the 1980s, taking private sexual photos and recording intimate videos have become activities deeply fabricated in the society and intimate photography a new way of interaction among young generation. However, once the private sexual materials are accidentally leaked, the Internet, due to its omnipresence, would serve as a tool to relay these materials to numerous platforms. The damage cannot be restored, with the victim's sex autonomy, privacy and reputation perpetually sabotaged. Although moral standard calls for the denial of making private sexual materials in the first place, and the law is only the minimum form of moral standard, the law should, however, hold responsible the perpetrator leaking the intimate photography against the subject's will. This article aims to take the U.S. laws as a legislative reference for the criminalization of such conducts. Through reflecting on the practical difficulties of the application of Taiwan's Criminal Code, this article proposes a direction for the legislative efforts to follow and sheds light on the conflict between new forms of interaction and the existing laws.

Keywords: Revenge Porn, Private Sexual Materials, Nonconsensual Pornography, Privacy

<Source: Hsiao, Yu-Tang, Leaking of Private Sexual Material--A Study on the Criminalization of Nonconsensual Pornography in Taiwan: Evidence from the U.S. Legislation, Science and Technology Law Review Vol. 28 No. 10, Oct. 2016 p.p. 27-55>

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