What Is the Superlative of Contributory Liability?... Local State Supervision Liability?

Managing IP magazine, had a link to an interesting China Daily article, see here in which a State Administration for Radio Film and Television (SARFT) official was quoted as saying that it is "working on the establishment of an internet audio-visual programs industry association (..)". The application has been submitted and it now waiting approval to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Also interesting in the article is that the government intensified supervision over major internet enterprises, a precautionary move to stop piracy spreading. "In 2009, the number websites being supervised by local copyright authorities, reached 3,029. They include Taobao.com, Baidu, Sohu and Youku."

That means that if infringement still took place in that period, it was under local copyright supervision.

Taobao is China's e-commerce platform. And where eBay is sued by trademark holders in the U.S. (Tiffany), France (Hermès and LVHM) and Belgium (Lancôme), in China Taobao was sued for example by Puma; read Lee, Won Hee Elaine. 'Online Auction Sites and Inconsistencies: A Case Study of France, China, and the United States.' American University Intellectual Property Brief, Spring 2010, 50-57, here.

Jesse London (who is the managing editor of Cornell Journal of International Law), wrote an interesting note on China's Approaches to Intellectual Property Infringement on the Internet for the Internet Journal of Rutgers School of Law, volume 38, 2010-2011, read here. Mr London is comparing the IFPI cases against Baidu and Yahoo China and comes to the conclusion that the degree of good faith of the online service provider is crucial, but so is the degree of reasonableness of the demands of the trademark holder by insisting in the measures against infringement.

Youku (the Chinese equivalent of YouTube) had a lot of pirated Hollywood movies. But I checked a few times and they indeed seem to have cleaned up a lot of copyright piracy.

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Declaration of Copyright Self-Regulation of the Chinese Internet Sector

About 100 websites, among others Sohu, Baidu and Youku have signed a declaration of copyright self-regulation. Rogier Creemers translated the declaration. Thank you.

Declaration of Copyright Self-Regulation of the Chinese Internet Sector

In order to safeguard copyright and related right holders' lawful rights and interest, stimulate the healthy development of the Internet industry, safeguard social and public interests, the representatives of the Internet sector make the following declaration of self-regulation to society:

I, Internet enterprises shall undertake their obligations to society, earnestly respect and propagate State propaganda laws and related policies, resist activities of piracy and copyright infringement, safeguard the lawful rights and interests of copyright holders, safeguard the healthy order of the Internet sector.

II, Persisting in the principle of first obtaining authorization and only then using works, not disseminating in any way works without authorization from the copyright holder.

III, Strengthening supervision and management of internet users uploading works, prompting users that they may not upload works of others, preventing third parties from using information network platforms of a certain work unit to engage in unlawful activities of copyright infringement.

IV, Vigorously adopting technological steps conform to generally acknowledged industry standards, preventing the occurrence of infringing activities. Works listed in administrative copyright management entity notices or in notices of the implementing organ of this Declaration as not being permitted to be uploaded without authorization, technological measures shall be taken to restrict users from uploading; technological measures shall be taken to restrict users from uploading video works in their period of movie theatre screening, and hot broadcasting.

V, Measures such as deletion of corresponding information, cessation of service, etc. will be taken to users violating service agreements, do not listen to advice, and engage in multiple infringing activities in order to stop them, and the corresponding competent authorities will be notified.

VI, Earnestly dealing with notification of copyright and corresponding copyright holders, guaranteeing that within 24 hours, steps are taken to delete or should corresponding information according to the law.

VII, Vigorously developing applied copyright authentication and claim systems, providing convenient passages for copyright holders in claiming copyright and authorizing.

VIII, Vigorously communicating with copyright holders and related industry associations, together researching the establishment of convenient work authorization application systems under an information network environment, stimulating the lawful dissemination of works.

IX, Vigorously coordinating with administrative copyright management entities' daily supervision and administrative enforcement investigation, safeguarding a desirable network copyright protection order.

X, Establishing Internet sector information common assistance systems, preventing malicious lawsuits and unfair competition activities, maintaining healthy Internet sector development.

But will it work?

What do you think will be the influence of the declaration?

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