The well-known American journal Publishers' Weekly came to Taiwan to do a story last January, and did a 16-page "special section" on Taiwan in mid-May.

These articles gave the US and Europe an image of Taiwan different from the "pirate" criticism. Under the title, "A New Entrant on the International Publishing Scene," the section affirmed Taiwan's efforts in respecting international copyrights. The journal also reported that "translating rights" will now be included in Taiwan's copyright law, pointing out that Taiwan will become an important market for international publishing rights.

A New Product for International Trade: As far the advanced Western nations are concerned, the translation rights under a copyright have long been a marketable commodity, and have circulated among nations. For the Taiwan publishing industry, it is a new product, and, whether it be bought or sold with the international community, the experience will be new.

Because in the past Taiwan's copyright law did not include translation, it was not considered illegal to translate the works of other countries among Taiwan booksellers. Taiwan citizens have thus long enjoyed the ability to utilize the "intellectual property" of other nations for free.

Following Taiwan's economic development, with a huge trade surplus, vast foreign exchange reserves, and a per capita income of US$8,000, Taiwan's economic strength was visible everywhere, and had become adequate to bear the costs of buying "intellectual property."

In fact, with international interactions constantly increasing, and active participation in international organizations, Taiwan would now be hard pressed to keep itself outside the international rules of the game.

The US is the country with which Taiwan has the largest trade surplus, and is also the nation which has put the most pressure on Taiwan to amend the copyright laws. In 1990, for example, Taiwan's trade surplus with the US was US$9.1 billion, accounting for 72% of the total trade surplus. Faced with a large trade deficit with Taiwan, the US began requesting Taiwan to pay fees on the "intangible commodities" it acquired from the US--fees for Chinese translations of American writings.

Respecting the International Rules of the Game: Taiwan currently is actively seeking to enter international organizations. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) already includes intellectual property rights within the scope of its jurisdiction. Louis Chuan-lu Wang, chairman of the Copyright Committee of the Ministry of the Interior, points out that although GATT has yet to reach any definitive conclusion on the issue of standard norms for copyrights, it is expected that the Bern Treaty of 1886, to which more than 80 member countries are already signatories, will be passed as the standard. In other words, if you want to win international respect or get into international organizations, and set up onto the world stage, it is essential to respect the international standard copyright agreements.

The greatest difference between the new copy-right law currently being deliberated and the old law is that the new law protects translation rights. That is, if you want to translate any work for publication, it is first necessary to acquire the rights. Further, the new copyright law stipulates that for citizens of Taiwan the principle of "creation" is to be adopted, whereas citizens of other countries use "registration." However, for "reciprocating" countries which mutually protect copyrights from Taiwan, these will have the same treatment as citizens--which means it is not necessary to register; the work will be protected as long as it was fully created by the original author.

For the publishing industry, they knew that sooner or later that they would have to acquire the publishing rights before being allowed to translate books, and everyone has been psychologically prepared. For those who see publishing as a long-term profession, they began several years ago to purchase publishing rights on their own.

Commonwealth Publishing, ninety percent of whose books are translations, began to buy publishing rights from their owners in 1987. For books that had been published in the past without such rights, in 1988 they initiated compensatory discussions on publishing rights; they can be considered the leader in the publishing field in this area.

A number of other orthodox publishing houses, including China Times, Lien Ching, Shang Chou, Bookman Books, and Hsin Chao, have moved in droves to begin acquiring publishing rights in recent years. The "grand old man" of the publishing industry, Yuan-Liou, has even set up its own "Publication Rights Department," specializing in negotiating publishing rights.

Healthy Competition: The two domestic publishing rights agencies--Big Apple and Bardon--have both indicated that, beginning in 1990, their workloads increased immensely. For example, more than 1,000 foreign books have already been purchased through Big Apple. Bardon has successfully brought in nearly 600. They note that even more books have been brought in through negotiations undertaken by the buyers themselves, without going through their mediation.

Respecting foreign copyrights is the first step in the internationalization of the publishing industry. What impacts will this have on the nature of the industry?

"The most direct will be to raise costs," says Commonwealth assistant chief editor Fu Chih-ying. The costs of royalties for translated books will raise costs by about ten percent. Because foreign books must go through this one additional translation process compared to local works, it is necessary to bear the translation fee. After the advantages of not having to pay the royalties are gone, the costs of translated books will be higher than for local ones.

Increased costs and increased risks are, however, not necessarily entirely negative influences. "In the future, publishers will be even more thoughtful in choosing books," argues Chou Haw Cheng, editor-in-chief at Yuan-Liou Publishing. The result of "thoughtfulness" might be to improve the unequal quality of the translated books on the market.

But given cost considerations the "market orientation" of translated books will become increasingly clear. Jerome C. Su, managing director of Bookman Books, which specializes in importing foreign language books and which has 14 years of experience publishing translations, says: "There will be more and more profitable common books, and ever fewer scholarly works. Everyone will fight to publish the books that will sell."

Judging a Book by Its Cover: Last year, John Naisbitt, author of Megatrends and Megatrends 2000, accepted an invitation to come to Taiwan to lecture. He accidentally revealed that he plant to write Megatrends for Women as his next book. As soon as the word was out, three major local publishers immediately were drawn to contend for the publishing rights. Although this book is still nothing but blank sheets of paper, without as much as a word yet written, domestic publishers have already decided it will absolutely be a best-seller.

This phenomenon deserves some concerned attention, Jerome Su says, and the government should have subsidization measures. For example, it should be feasible for the government bureau of translation to buy the publishing rights to relatively narrow or scholarly works from abroad and then translate and issue them.

Though the publishing industry is oriented to best-sellers, some entrepreneurs are not giving up on the "long haul." For example, Yuan-Liou has already begun actively seeking out public finance classics. Lawyer Hsiao Hsiung-lin explains that all books published before 1965 (that is, a full twenty years before the implementation of the amendments to the copyright law in 1985) which have not been registered in Taiwan are considered in the public domain, and there are no worries about publishing rights in using them. Publishing this type of book is not only an excellent way to save the costs of royalties, because anyone can publish them, the market cannot be "monopolized," so the profit margin will be limited.

Moreover, in order to lower costs, some publishers are seeking out cheaper translating talent on the mainland.

"The translations fees charged by mainland professors are only one-third to one-half those of professors in a foreign languages department in Taiwan. The only disadvantage is that it is harder to control quality," notes Jerome Su.

Local Writers Come Out: Yuan-Liou has had an unhappy experience cooperating with mainland China. "It's inconvenient for communication and supervision; when translations are sent, we discover the quality is poor, and we have to find someone to smooth it out and revise it; some of them we can't use at all, and they have to be translated all over again." Chou Haw Cheng shakes his head and mutters, "It's a lot of trouble."

The blow to local translators is not limited to a decline it work opportunities. In the future, translators will be even more limited by publishers. Jerome Su points out that, "In the future it will be impossible for someone to privately translate and issue a book, because the translators will be unable to acquire the publishing rights. The past method of translators choosing which books to translate and then turning them over to a publisher to print and release will no longer be feasible."

Nevertheless, for local authors, opportunities will increase. If the costs of translations are high, and risks are great, many publishers will decrease the number of translations they issue, and change over to low-cost, low-risk local authors.

Taking Commonwealth for example, the proportion of translations reached 90% in the past. "We have already signed contracts with many local authors, and are planning to issue a series of local works," reveals Fu Chih-ying.

Yuan-Liou is even more aggressively developing local writers and exploring new areas. "In the past, non-fiction books like financial management were the preserve of translations. Today, Yuan-Liou is actively publishing books with the views of local authors which better fit the local popular mood," notes Chou Haw-cheng. Of these, the greatest investment will be a 40-volume Commercial Reader, the work of new local author Chen Wen-teh.

The new "translation fee" copyright law will certainly have a broad impact on Taiwan's publishing industry. Some of the effects will be progressive, but there are also concerns. Although everything will not be smooth sailing, it is believed that the publishing industry, which carries such a heavy responsibility, will find its way to an equilibrium.

[Picture Caption]

Pirated books like The Miyazawa Rie Photo Album will have to keep their heads down at streetside bookstalls after the passage of the new copyright provisions.

Every year 20,000 new volumes are published in Taiwan. The large number means that the shelf life of each individual book will get shorter and shorter.

The 1990 International Federation of the Periodical Press meeting was held in Helsinki, Finland, bringing together publishers from every nation.

The Golden Tripod Award, issued by the Government Information Office, is the highest honor sought by publishers. (Sinorama file photo)

Every year 20,000 new volumes are published in Taiwan. The large number means that the shelf life of each individual book will get shorter and shorter.

The 1990 International Federation of the Periodical Press meeting was held in Helsinki, Finland, bringing together publishers from every nation.

The Golden Tripod Award, issued by the Government Information Office, is the highest honor sought by publishers. （Sinorama file photo）