Against piracy: An enforcement officer destroying pirated DVDs in Beijing.

China is taking the battle into cyberspace as consumers buy on the Internet.

THE trend now in China is that piracy is going online. Instead of buying a pirated DVD of a Hollywood movie or a pirated book by famous Chinese novelist Mo Yan in the street, consumers are doing so on the Internet.

While video and movie portals are working out an industrial standard to legalise their contents and buying rights from film distributors, there are still many movies or programmes available on the Internet that infringe copyrights.

Besides, many Internet users can freely download movies from Chinese and overseas content-sharing websites.

As for books and other goods like shoes, watches, bags and sport equipment, some online mall operators mix genuine and fake products together.

According to statistics from the National Office of Eliminating Pornography and Illegal Publications Working Committee, enforcement agencies throughout the country seized and destroyed 233 million illegal audio-visual products and books over the last five years.

The committee’s deputy director Zhou Huilin said many of the pirated items were seized not merely from the market but from perpetrators in the course of investigations on websites and other unconventional distribution channels.

“The Beijing authorities recently shut down a website called siluhd.com which had been in operation for 10 years by providing a platform for visitors to download illegal audio-visual products.

“More than 10,000 people visited the website daily, downloading about 20,000 films and programmes that infringed copyrights. We will now focus on the online market especially video and book-shopping portals more,” he said in a recent interview.

He said the committee hoped that through investigation of cases of intellectual property right (IPR) infringement and enforcement on the Internet, they would reduce the number of pirated movies and publications in the market.

Citing the figures in the first quarter of this year, he said the number declined significantly to 3.59 million from about seven to 10 million in the corresponding period of the previous years.

“We will be monitoring all websites. Once we find any website that infringes copyrights, we will get to the bottom of it and oversee the whole operation.

“If a case is reported in a city or county, then the local agency of that area of jurisdiction will need to carry out investigations,” he added.

The committee is directly under the Chinese Communist Party’s central publicity department to coordinate with over 29 ministries and agencies with the aim to wipe out piracy.

It is also the national platform for the public to complain and report on pornographic contents or IPR infringement cases involving audio-visual production and publications.

The State Administration of Industry and Commerce, State Intellectual Property Office and the National Copyright Administration are responsible for legislative and enforcement matters and governing the IPR industry.

In its 2013 American Business in China White Paper, American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham), which is one of the most vocal exponents of China’s IPR policies, said it was encouraged by the increase of transparency of Chinese authorities in leading IPR reforms, but there were new sectors like unauthorised Internet rebroadcasting and decryption key sharing of pay TV programme via circumvention devices that needed to be addressed.

“AmCham China welcomes the ongoing enforcement campaigns conducted by the police nationwide. Sustained campaigns will result in real deterrence against illicit activities by counterfeiters and pirates.

“We believe that 2013 is a critical year for China’s IPR reforms. The pending amendments to the trademark law, copyright law, patent law and other draft regulations offer opportunities to address many of the deficiencies under the current IPR system in prosecution and protection,” it said.

AmCham China also said that economies offering balanced and effective IP protection would attract investment because companies were assured of protection of their valuable IP assets.

Wu Shulin, the Vice Minister of the General Administration of Press and Publications which is among the 29 agencies in the working committee, said piracy has now entered a more technologically advanced era which made the government’s effort to combat the menace harder but China would remain resolute until the end.

“We have seen positive results from the crackdown campaigns. But it will be a long battle. The government will nevertheless be unswerving in wiping out piracy and protecting the IPR of all companies to ensure economic and social prosperity in China,” he said.

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