YNOT EUROPE – Taiwanese officials on Wednesday gave carte blanche to adult content pirates by declining to prosecute 11 Taiwanese firms accused of pirating pornography produced in Japan.

In rejecting copyright-infringement charges levied against Elta Technologies Co. Ltd. and 10 other Taiwanese companies by several Japanese studios, the Taipei District Court Prosecutor’s Office cited extrapolation of legal precedent: Taiwan’s Supreme Court previously has upheld copyright claims involving scientific and artistic works, but no such rulings exist for pornography. Since adult materials are not explicitly protected under Taiwanese law, prosecutors said they could find no legal basis upon which to build a case.

Prosecutors further bolstered their reasoning by explaining the accused Taiwanese firms took reasonable steps to prevent children from accessing the subject videos, which reportedly included explicit depictions of oral and vaginal sex. The paywalls and warning signs posted on the websites were sufficient indication of compliance with Taiwan’s law prohibiting distribution of obscene materials, a statement issued by the prosecutor’s office noted.

According to a Channel NewsAsia report, the Japanese studios complained they had born all the expense of creating original pornographic content, only to find Elta Technologies and others selling their content online and pocketing the revenue without permission. The report did not specify what redress the complainants sought.