List of 100 Western Songs Must Be Removed By September 15, 2011

Tania Branigan reports about newly banned list of 100 Western songs that are not approved by the Ministry of Culture. All links to these songs must be removed by music websites in China by September 15th, 2011. The reason: because they allegedly have never been submitted for approval.

According to Ms Braningan the list is based on the 2009 directive to tackle poor taste and vulgar content. Not sure whether she means the Some Opinions Concerning Stimulating Our Country's Audiovisual Industry's Healthy and Orderly Growth published by the General Administration for the Press and Publication (GAPP) on July 20, 2009 and translated by my scholarly friend Rogier Creemers of China Copyright and Media. In the opinions the GAPP makes clear that it abhors "audiovisual products with vulgar and even sexual content  drifting into the market".

Lady Gaga leads the blacklisted one hundred, since she was mentioned six times in the list. Also banned are songs from Katy Perry, Britney Spears.Interestingly enough also relatively old songs were on the list, including the 1998 song "I want it that way", from the Backstreet Boys. Read Ms Branigan's article for The Guardian here.

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Music in China Business Model: Life Without Oxygen Possible?

6 articles to go: IP Dragon on its way to its 1000th article

NASA discovered that life can exist even without the 6 building blocks that were presumed crucial; carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur, read here. In the same vain the music industry thought for a long time that their only way of survival was selling songs. But the digital revolution sucked this oxygen out of their business model. Good news for them is that life can still exist, even without seeming crucial building blocks. If paying for songs does not work anymore, it can be substituted with free songs plus advertising on the side. Just as some life can exist without oxygen, and as NASA just found out even without phosporous if it is substituted by arsenic.

Top100.cn is trying to survive in the most "toxic" (because hardly any customer wants to pay for songs) and competitive (Baidu is its formidable competitor) business environments in the world.

Top100.cn is also experimenting with charging for:

• selection of music, with recommendations and links;
• a subscription for cloud service, so that you can access music on different devices.

In Spock's words: "It's life Jim, but not as we know it." The music industry could take an example to the astrobiologists who now realise that their search should be much more comprehensive in order to achieve their goal.

Read The Economist article here.

Thank you Mikołaj Rogowski, former guest columnist of IP Dragon, for pointing to the Economist aricle and Hans Klaufus to the NASA press release.

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Shanghai World Expo 2010 Exposes Organisers' Lack of Creativity

In 2007 the Bureau of the Shanghai World Expo 2010 Coordination promulgated a special regulatation (See here: No. 11) concerning intellectual property rights. In short all participants to the World Expo were warned that they should comply to China's IPR laws, regulations and rules far in advance. "The General Administration of Press and Publication and the National Copyright Administration have also called for a rapid-response mechanism to protect the intellectual property rights of the Shanghai World Expo, meaning that copyright departments at all levels will check materials that may infringe on the copyrights of the Shanghai World Expo as soon as they are found." Read more here. That is laudatory indeed, but what about the Shanghai World Expo 2010 organization themselves? Do they also have to comply to the very same IPR laws, regulations and rules?

You probably have seen that 'Haibao', the expo mascot, was an unauthorised copy of an American cartoon figure Gumpy, read the Japan Probe article about it here.

Then the Shanghai Expo theme song 'Right here waiting for you' is an almost completely plagiarized song by Maya Okamoto from 1997 called 'Stay the way you are', listen to the two songs and read Japan Probe's article here.
The Shanghai World Expo and organizers first paid 10 million yuan for the plagiarized song and then had to pay 300 million yen to Ms Okamoto to settle the case. According Elaine Kurtenbach who wrote an article about ti for the Associated Press, the Shanghai World Expo organizers said that Ms Okamoto was honored to have a chance to cooperate with the event. Read the AP article here.

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2010: Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court: "Baidu, Sohu/Sogou Are No Copyright Pirates"

- In June 2005 Shanghai Bu-sheng Music, a branch of EMI in China, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Baidu. Baidu was found liable by People's Court of Haidian District in Beijing for copyright infringement in September 16, 2005. Read more about it in Rouse's China Intellectual Property Express, Issue 265 here.
- In September 2006 zeven Hong Kong music companies brought a law suit against Baidu at Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court. Baidu was acquited in November, because it would be merely linking to third parties, see IP Dragon's post about it here and again Rouse's China IP Express, Issue 265 here. International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the organisation that represented the music companies was going to appeal.

- But in early 2008 three music companies brought a case against Baidu and Sohu/Sogou at Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court.

The plainiffs were:

• Universal Music;
• Sony BMG Music Entertainment Hong Kong, and;
• Warner Music Hong Kong.

However, again all defendants were cleared of the accusations. Read the Reuters article by Kate Holton here.

Marcia Ellis, Jean Zheng and Paul Weiss wrote a concise article about the 'Safe Harbour Protection in China: How China's New Regulations Protect the Information Dissemination Rights of Digital Networks'. Please take note that the "new" Regulation on Protection of the Right to Network Dissemination of Information entered into force on July 1, 2006.

The most important rule is article 23:

Article 23 Regulation on Protection of the Right to Network Dissemination of Information:
"A network service provider that provides searching or linking services to a service object, and has disconnected the link to a work, performance, or audio-visual recording infringing on an other’s right after receiving notification from the owner, shall not be liable for compensation; however, if it knew or should have known that the linked work, performance, or audio-visual recording has infringed upon an other’s right, it shall bear liability for joint infringement."

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60 percent of Hong Kong Young Download Films or Music Illegally

Adrian Wan, of the South China Morning of Friday, August 21st, reported that 60 percent of young people in Hong Kong download films or music illegally, according to Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (HKFYG) survey.

17 perent of 559 respondents aged 10 to 24 were unsure whether they were breaking copyright law.

More can be found via the HKFYG website in the article Youth Research Centre and Lakshmi Jacota on the rise of connectivity: statistics and behaviour.

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WSJ Reports 90 Percent of China's Netizens Access Pirated Music

Mira Veda of the Huffington Post writes "The Wall Street Journal reports that 90% of China's Web Users, which is estimated to be about 162 million people, access pirated music from their computers every day ... " Read here.

Ms Veda, and with her many others, is doubting what the next best business model for the music industry will be in times of massive digital piracy: Google's advertising model (read 'Giving Away Music for Free to Destroy Copyright Piracy: Operation Succes, Patient Dead?') or France's three strikes system (read 'Taiwan's Three Strikes System Less Strict Than French Equivalent'), or some other model. Ms Veda is convinced that some regulation is a prerequisite for the world to see the potential of authors and performing artists that otherwise cannot afford to make music.

Below Ms Veda's article rjmiller (Rob Miller, who is a musician and songwriter) comments that regulation is not the answer and that it only hurts the extremely succesful musicians, quoting Tim O'Reilly 'Piracy is Progressive Taxation'. Mr Miller also wrote: "If you've ever spoken to an Indie artist, they don't worry about piracy, they worry about obscurity". 

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Consumers International Says UK Has Worse Copyright Regime Than China... Nonsense Says Sharkey

Thank goodness it is Friday. Consumers International did a survey on the intellectual property laws and enforcement practices of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, the UK and the US, see here. 

According to BBC News Consumers International decided that "UK law was least effective in balancing the interests of rights holders against those of consumers." Read BBC News "UK 'has the worst copyright laws'", here. 

Feargal Sharkey, yes the great singer of 'A good heart' and CEO of UK Music strongly opposes this view: "In particular, claims that Chinese and Indian consumers (and media) have greater freedoms to access copyrighted works than UK citizens are as ludicrous as they are offensive."

Read more on MusicWeek, here.

The simple fact that China blocked the YouTube video of 'A Good Heart' below suggests Sharkey is right. This songs' lyrics are appropriate and include:

"I hear a lot of stories
I suppose they could be true
All about intellectual property and what it can do to you
Highest risk of striking out
The risk of getting hurt
And still, I have so much to learn"

Ok, ok, I changed a word or two; listen to the original lyrics below and enjoy your weekend. 

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Giving Away Music For Free to Destroy Copyright Piracy: Operation Success, Patient Dead?

Google is trying to get a bit closer to Baidu, the number one search engine in China. Therefore it is offering the users of google.cn free music downloads. It is legal, because all copyright holders have given permission.

Murad Ahmed of the Times Online wrote:

"The service is supported by 140 record labels, including the big four (Warner Music, Universal, EMO, Sony BMG), and will earn revenue from advertising on pages that let Chinese web users download or stream licensed music – 350,000 tracks are already available, with plans to have more than a million tracks within a few months. Warner Music said that it would make its entire global catalogue available as part of the deal." Read Mr Ahmed's article here.

Advertising seems to be the only feasible business model on the internet that has emerged and the music industry also wants to give it a try. The music industry might have realised that (to paraphrase Professor Lawrence Lessig in his excellent book Free Culture) to criminalise a whole generation is not the way to go forward.

There is no question about whether this business model decreases the urge to pirate copyrights, but the question is whether the music industry can survive this way. Is it a good idea, or will this turn out to be "operation succeeded, patient died"? 

What do you think?

UPDATE1:

Also listen to/read the interview of Bob Garfield of On the Media with Greg Kot, author of the upcoming book 'Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music'. 

Thanks for pointing out this interview Ron Yu of novacourses.com

UPDATE2:

Mira Veda wrote a nice article for the Huffington Post about it called 'Pirates Stealing Music in China ... US ... Everywhere', don't forget to read the commentaries below Ms Veda's article.

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IPR Officials Say The Darndest Things: Progress in Collecting Karaoke Copyright Royalties

Yan Liang of Xinhua News reports that "nearly half of the Chinese provinces have taken initiatives to collect karaoke copyright royalties by the end of 2007 in an effort to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) in audio and video sectors."

"An official with the country's IPR protection group echoed Liu, saying that the move marked new progress in property protection." One could describe 15 out of a total of 22 provinces, where initiatives to collect karaoke copyright royalties took place, as a meagre result. Then again, from 0 to something is progress.

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Baidu Acquitted Of Charges By HK Music Companies Of Copyright Infringements

In September seven Hong Kong music companies brought against Baidu, the largest search engine of China, a copyright infringement lawsuit. Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court ruled that the accusations did not have adequate legal support.

The seven companies were:
Universal Music Hong Kong Limited;
Go East Entertainment;
Warner Music Hong Kong Limited;
Sony BMG Music Entertainment (Hong Kong) Limited;
EMI Group Hong Kong Limited;
Cinepoly Music and Gold Label Entertainment.

The music companies, represented by the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI), accused Baidu of providing and spreading pirated versions of 137 songs for which the record companies hold copyrights through http://mp3.baidu.com, which enables Internet users to search and download music on the Internet. They were seeking a total of RMB 1.67 million (USD 208,750) in compensation, a public apology, and for Baidu to cease facilitating downloads of pirated music.

"During the hearing Baidu argued that it never uploaded any music or songs to its own servers, nor provided any music downloads to users. The company iterated that it was just an online search platform that provided search results according to the input of users. Its "MP3 Search Service," is just one of its search services, and is not much different than the other services it offers, the company said."

IFPI's Benjamin Ng said they would definitely appeal to a higher court. To be continued.

Read more in an article of Interfax China here.

Baidu "strong on censoring, weak on copyright enforcement" here.

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