China plan action on Internet piracy
China has promised to take tougher action over the problem of Internet music piracy.
Representatives from China’s Ministry of Culture met the IFPI, an international music body, in Cannes on Sunday to discuss how to improve the “grave situation” of Chinese music piracy.
China has come in for strong criticism in recent years over a perceived lack of action of Internet piracy, with an IFPI report out this month claiming that piracy accounts for 99% of the Chinese music market.
Many feel that China has not done enough to prevent search engines such as Baidu being used to share music illegally. In 2006 a group of record companies including Universal, EMI, Sony BMG and Warner Music lost a lawsuit that alleged Baidu was responsible for mass breach of copyright.
“Web music is booming but we have a lot of issues of illegitimacy and piracy,” admitted Zhang Xin Jian from the Ministry of Culture.
“Illegal downloading and uploading of music on the Internet has been very detrimental to artists,” he continued “…we feel very sorry about that and it has drawn great attention from the Chinese government,”
Zhang disputed IFPI’s figure of 99%, but conceded that the problem was severe. saying the Chinese government would tighten their administrative control of the Internet and actively seek to prosecute the pirates.
“We have just started fighting Internet piracy,” Zhang told gathered reporters, adding China was ”very confident” the situation would soon be under control.
The Ministry and around one hundred Chinese business representatives were in China to learn about the industry and for the exchange of ideas.
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