International Law

China Online Infringement ? Future Looking Brighter For Owners

By Stan

Notwithstanding some well-publicized enforcement cases involving foreign IP owners, the path to success involves domestic copyright owners.

This is obvious. Before we can move to an enforcement system that has sufficient resources, has well trained officials, and is devoid of political interference, we will have to deal with the present flawed (but improving) framework.

When there are political and resource problems to deal with, enforcement of foreign-owned IP will always be problematic and, to a certain extent, ad hoc.

To move away from ad hoc enforcement, we need some large, preferably State-owned companies to get involved and regularize the system, essentially paving the way for others.

CCTV.com and Phoenixtv.com have together formed an alliance for the protection of the copyrights of online video programs in China.

The alliance, which has already been joined by local TV service providers such as Shanghai Media Group Broadband, hifly.tv, Beijing TV Station and Shenzhen Media Group, has also released a manifesto to enhance copyright protection and ensure the healthy development of the online video industry.

This is said to be the first time that the new media arms of Chinese domestic TV stations have taken a joint action against online piracy of video programs. Wang Ziqiang, director of the Copyright Division of National Copyright Administration of China, stated that this alliance would be conducive to upgrading the environment for online copyright protection. (ChinaTechNews)

Sounds good to me. If they end up pursuing “normal” enforcement options as part of their plan, that would be better. But even if they only work to force a higher standard of best practices in the industry, this will be a step in the right direction.

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Full post as published by China Hearsay on August 24, 2009 (boomark / email).