China To Protect Intellectual Copyrights On The Net By Steve Gold, Newsbytes BEIJING, CHINA, 22 Dec 2000, 7:56 AM CST The years of badgering China by the governments of the US and other countries over intellectual copyrights appears to have paid off, as a Chinese court has ruled that copyrights are now enforceable on the Internet. In the 1980s and early 1990s, China came under fire for failing to recognize copyrights. In the mid-1990s, the government started to clamp down on counterfeiting in the real world, but the law relating to the world of the Internet remained somewhat nebulous. Until now. The Supreme People's Court of China has issued a ruling that sets a precedent to allow copyright owners to enforce their ownership of works online, as well as to legally license that information in return for payment. Although the Chinese government has officially supported many aspects of copyright on the Internet, the rules are not enforced as rigorously as, for example, in the US. Critics have pointed out, however, that the licensing of copyright material on the Internet in China has been difficult, owing to the issue of enforcement. The Chinese court ruling changes this, effectively making licensable content on the Net not only possible, but enforceable if anything untoward happens. Compensation in such situations, China Daily says, can be up to $60,000 - a small fortune in Chinese terms. Latest figures suggest that China had around 17 million Internet users as of August, but China Daily, the Chinese daily newspaper, reports that this figure is closer to 30 million as of this month. --- Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest news --- |
||