May 17, 2017

New online copyright launch in China

copyright China

The Copyright Society of China (“CSC”) has launched its official online Copyright Monitoring Centre (“the Centre”).  The Centre had been founded for some time, since August 2016, but only went live last month.  The CSC hopes that the Centre will play a crucial role in safeguarding China’s Copyright Regulations, particularly on the internet.

Many western copyright owners and Copyright Protection Societies might view this rather sceptically, and with due justification.  Piracy in China is still a massive problem and according to Chinese sources, piracy caused an estimated half a billion pounds lost revenue in 2016.  We suspect the figure is substantially greater!

It is acknowledged that copyright protection in China has been beset with difficulties, both legally and culturally.  The hope is that the Centre, being a government-sponsored platform, will be more forceful, dynamic and efficient. This is particularly the hope, given that presently only about 5% of copyright infringement is handled through civil litigation in the People’s Republic of China and there is a huge backlog in dealing with the problem.

At the time of this article, we do not know the cost associated with monitoring copyright in China by using the Centre or how such a system will actually operate.  But, if you are aware of, or have reason to believe that your copyright work is subject to infringement in China and you would like further information and advice regarding this state supported service, then please contact me, and I will be pleased to make further enquiries through our Chinese agents.

Our thanks to Tian Lu at intellectual property blog The IPKat for first bringing this news to our attention.

Share on: