Music Copyright Fees for Television and Radio Announced

Picture:
TV History

JLM Pacific Epoch (China Business Headlines & Analysis from JL McGregor & Company) translated a report by West China City Daily quoting Chinese composer Xu Peidong that China's National Publishing Administration plans to set up copyright fees of 2.4 Renminbi per minute for music used on television and 0,3 Renminbi per minute for Radio. Read here.

Read more about the General Administration of Publication under the Central People's Government on the site of ChinaCulture.org, here.

Also the US Library of Congress gives some information about the history of the National Publishing Administration: "In 1982 the China National Publishing Administration, the umbrella organization of Chinese publishers, was placed under the Ministry of Culture, but actual management of the industry was directed through four systems of administration: direct state administration; administration by committees or organizations of the State Council or the party Central Committee; armed forced administration; and administration by provinces, autonomous regions, or special municipalities."
Read more here.

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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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China and Russia Sign Intellectual Property Agreement For Military-Technical Cooperation

According to a translation by RIA Novosti of the Russian newspapers Vedomosti and Kommersant, the Russian-Chinese inter-governmental commission for military-technical cooperation met in Beijing for the first time in the past three years to sign an agreement on copyright [what is probably meant is intellectual property, including copyright IP Dragon] protection in the field of military-technical cooperation on December 11, 2008.

RIA Novosti wrote that copyright [what is probably meant is intellectual property, including copyright IP Dragon] protection is a serious problem for Russian military products.

It alleged that China's People's Liberation Army copied for example the following Russian military products:

• Antonov An-12 Cub (RU) See left picture became Y-8 military cargo plane (CN) See right picture;
• An-24 Coke transport aircraft (RU) became Modern Ark MA-60 regional aircraft (CN);
• X-55 cruise missile (RU) became C-602 missile (CN);
• AL-31F aircraft engine (RU) became Tai Hung WS-10 aircraft engine (CN).

Read the RIA Novosti article here. (last article on the webpage)

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