從軟體盜版論智慧財產權保障之研究

Abstract

在知識經濟的時代，資訊產業已成為提昇產業發展與國家經濟的重要基礎，各國政府為鼓勵廠商追求創新，不僅加強宣導尊重智慧財產權，並持續展開盜版查緝工作。但由於部份軟體訂價高昂令使用者無法負擔，且企業經營者並無合法使用版權之觀念，導致盜版軟體充斥；加上資訊網路的蓬勃發展，使用P2P技術交換盜版軟體的情況也急遽升高，網路已儼然成為盜版軟體的新型管道。然各國之法律制度對智慧財產權的保障程度不同，商業軟體業者該如何確保其權益不受侵害，將面臨嚴峻的考驗。本論文從軟體產業、資訊技術與科技法律等層面來進行探究，並以大中華區盜版個案來進行分析，從中尋求保護合法軟體的機制，做為提供軟體業者與消費用戶保障其權益之參考。

In this knowledge-based economy, information technology is an asset vital to industry and economic development. Governments in many jurisdictions actively promote awareness of intellectual property rights, take measures to combat infringement including software piracy and implement policies to encourage technology innovations. Despite all these initiatives, software piracy cases contribute to increase. The two main attributing factors are (i) the high prices of genuine software programs which may not be affordable by users and (ii) the lack of respect for intellectual property rights among certain corporate users or consumers. In addition to the new technology P2P, which makes its easy to download illegal software from the Internet, the different levels of intellectual property protection afforded in various jurisdictions further increase the difficulty in stamping out such infringement against software that are in markets worldwide. This study attempts to identify a mechanism for the protection of intellectual property rights to software from the perspectives of software industries, information technology and relevant technology laws, and adopts several case studies of software piracy in the Greater China. The Study serves as a reference for software business operators and end-users in protecting their legal rights and interests with respect to the use of software.