Improvement of Online Copyright Protection in China
(posted on our MP&W website) 3 January 2007, 21:45

On December 15, 2006 the National Copyright Administration of China (NCA), signed a Memorandum of Understanding with several major organizations of copyright holders concerning protection from internet piracy in China. Partners of the memorandum, which aims at protecting movies, television programs, software and literary works, include the Motion Picture Association (representing the interests of major motion picture companies in the global marketplace), the Business Software Alliance (representing a large number of worldwide software makers), the Association of American Publishers as well as the Publishers Association of the United Kingdom.

According to the MoU, the above mentioned associations will provide the NCA with information about products that have been released legitimately for download via the Internet so that Chinese copyright enforcement authorities can readily distinguish between legal and pirated online content. Further, they will also provide information on infringement activities which harm the copyrights of their member companies.

The parties of the MoU agreed that the NCA will investigate the cases reported by the copyright associations and hand over those cases to the competent judicial authorities for prosecution.

(Source: Press release of MPA and newsletter of SIPO (State Intellectual Property Office of PR China))