Who’s the next Witch House?

On the 20th of May this year, the ‘Witch House’ live performance venue was fined after failing to comply with Taipei City planning laws.  The fine came about as according to Taipei City zoning laws, the location in the Witch House operates does not permit the selling of alcohol. In fact, ‘Witch House’ is not the first live performance venue to receive a fine – back in 2006 ‘The Wall’ and ‘Underworld’ were both registered as violating local registration laws, and from that time have continually faced police inspections and general disruption. A public hearing was held and a ‘Certificate of Important Artistic Performances or Exhibitions’ was given to the establishments, however the industry at large has questioned the legality of the certificate, leaving great uncertainty and the problem anything but solved.  After the ‘Witch’ incident of this year, Taipei City Government amended the ‘Taipei City Zoning Regulations’, adding ‘Musical Performance Space Industry’. The Witch House never applied for the new ‘Musical Performance Space Industry’ license as their purpose of business, but uses ‘Musical Performance Space Industry’ as their purpose of land use. Although the two items share the same name, however their purposes differ and are administered under different units. In the end, are live performance venues the authority of central government or local government? Traders desperately hope that clear rules on the administering authority will emerge to finally dispel the vague restrictions. The Department of Cultural Affairs have expressed that they are currently in the process of discussions to rectify the situation.

Who’s the next Witch House?

URL: http://www.peopo.org/news/78625

(以下為中文對照)

誰是下一個女巫店(大學報)

今年5月20日，位在公館的Livehouse女巫店，因為不符合都市計畫法令，遭台北市都發局開單。根據台北市土地使用分區規則，女巫店使用的營業項目 並沒有包含飲酒業，因此遭罰。其實女巫店並不是第一個受罰的livehouse，早在2006年，「The wall」和「地下社會」都曾經因為登記項目不符合而違反登記法，不斷面臨警察臨檢和稽查。後來舉辦公聽會，得到一張「重要藝文展演空間證明書」。但是問 題並沒解決，業者也質疑證明書的法律效力。今年女巫店事件後，台北市政府修改「台北市土地使用分區管制規則」，新增「音樂展演空間業」。女巫店沒有申請 「音樂展演空間業」的營業項目，卻以「音樂展演空間業」土地使用的名義繼續生存，這兩個相同名稱的登記項目，卻有不同的使用目的和不同的管理單位。 Livehouse到底該聽中央還是地方政府的話？業者期盼統籌單位的出現，針對相關法規模糊的部分，台北市文化局表示最近各部會也正在著手討論。

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