China To Step Up Monitoring Of Internet Piracy

by Mary Swire, for LawAndTax-News.com, Hong Kong

05 June 2006

According to a report from the Chinese state news service, Xinhua, the Beijing authorities are planning to use the latest online technology to authenticate, monitor and protect intellectual property rights on the Internet.

The technology reportedly inludes a software copyright authentication platform and an improved Internet copyright monitoring system.

Speaking to Xinhua, Wang Ziqiang, spokesman for the National Copyright Administration of China revealed that the use of such measures to prevent copyright infringement and piracy on the Internet was increasing.

In addition, on Monday, a new regulation concerning copyright protection was enacted, according to the report.

Under the new regulation, which comes into force on July 1, those seeking to upload texts, performance, or sound and video recordings to the Internet for downloading, copying or other use, must first acquire the permission of the copyright owners and pay the required fee.

These moves come following a call by the United States government for its Chinese counterpart to step up its IP protection efforts.

Speaking at the recent US-China Business Matchmaking Conference, the US Commerce Department's Deputy Director for East Asia and the Pacific, Alain de Sarran, welcomed China's commitments to improving its intellectual property regime, but argued that the international community had seen very little in the way of concrete progress in that area.

According to reports, the Commerce Department Official stated that:

"Inadequate IPR protection is still one of China's greatest shortcomings as a trading partner. We are looking for China to impose deterrent penalties and increase the number of criminal prosecutions for IPR violations."

Recommended