Music copyright infringement in China

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Today music copyright is enforced in China. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry 97% Chinese consumers were listening to licensed music in 2021. [1] In 2018 the rate was 96% of Chinese, which was a much higher amount than the global average of 62%. [2]

Contents

Back in 2008 rates of music copyright infringement in China was widely regarded as among the highest in the world. [3] Some reports from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said, that about 95 percent or higher of music sales in China were unauthorized, most coming from downloads of copyrighted music on the Internet. [4]

Some record stores sold unauthorized copies of artists’ music for as little as $4. [5] This had been hard on international and Chinese record industries such as the Music Copyright Society of China, with revenues dropping 90 percent and new release sales falling about 50 percent since 2005. There were also Chinese-based peer-to-peer services assisting in large-scale illegal file-sharing, according to the IFPI. In 2005, the IFPI reported more than 350 million unauthorized discs were sold and the physical copyright infringement value totalled about $410 million. [6] Most of these illegal sites or services offer songs for free, generating income from advertising and other services.

Laws governing intellectual property in China have been in place since 1979 with varying levels of success. With a large amount of copyright infringement online during the past decade, China's supreme governing body, the State Council of the People's Republic of China, has introduced streamlined regulations, effective July 1, 2007 that clarifies China's copyright law regarding the liability of content and service providers involved in the distribution of unauthorized content. [7]

In the 21st century, the Chinese government has tried to diminish online copyright violation. In 2006, a memorandum of understanding with a number of media industry associations to help fight unauthorized distribution and protect online copyright was signed. This was after the infringement rate of software in China reached 86 percent.

In April 2007, the United States government filed action against China with the World Trade Organization for violating intellectual property rights.[ citation needed ] The suit was brought because it was believed the Chinese government was not acting against copyright infringement as a criminal offense.

Current lawsuits

On April 7, 2007, Beijing's No. 1 Intermediate People's Court made the decision to allow suits to be brought against two of China's leading search engines, Baidu and Sogou. [8] Sogou is the music service of the Web portal Sohu. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry will represent Universal Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment (Hong Kong) and Warner Music Hong Kong in a suit against Baidu. Gold Label Entertainment Ltd., backed by EMI Group Ltd., is also bringing a suit against Sogou as well.

The music-industry lawsuits claim $9 million in damages against Baidu and $7.5 million against Sogou. The lawsuit against Baidu is based on 127 copyright music tracks, which are just a small representative sample of the wider infringement. They seek the maximum statutory compensation under Chinese law of $71,000 per track, or about $9 million total. [9] A victory for the plaintiffs could set a precedent in not only China but worldwide when it comes to "deep-linking" files online. [10]

“Baidu is China’s largest violator of music copyrights, generating huge revenue by deliberately providing access to illegal content,” John Kennedy, Chairman and Chief Executive of IFPI, said in a statement in April. “The scale of what it is doing can be summed up by the fact that if the courts were to rule that Baidu should pay maximum statutory damages for all the infringing tracks available through its service it would have to pay many billions of dollars in compensation. That would be an enormous but appropriate price to pay for a company that is failing to take what are quite simple steps to respect the rights of artists and record companies and protect the content of IFPI’s members.” [11]

As record industry numbers have fallen, Baidu's revenue doubled in 2007 to $239 million, which comes mostly from online advertising. [12]

Lawsuits

Over time, trademarks, patents, and lawsuits involving intellectual property are growing in China.

The IFPI has filed about 300 lawsuits in Chinese courts and have been victorious in about 90 percent of them. [13] In April 2007, a court ruled that Yahoo! China's MP3 search service enabled copyright infringement of music, which still has not been thoroughly enforced and may be in the process of more litigation. [14] The IFPI lost a similar case months earlier against Baidu when a Beijing court accepted the company's argument that it's simply providing a link to third-party content.

Baidu leads the Chinese search engine market. Reports show that 70–75 percent of search engine traffic is through Baidu, and many see the ability to find and copy music through Baidu as a reason. Google has recently partnered with the Yao Ming-founded online music provider Top100.cn to make some headway in the Chinese market. [15]

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sohu</span> Chinese Internet company founded in 1996

Sohu, Inc. is a Chinese Internet company headquartered in the Sohu Internet Plaza in Haidian District, Beijing. Sohu and its subsidiaries offer advertising, a search engine (Sogou.com), on-line multiplayer gaming (ChangYou.com) and other services.

File sharing in Canada relates to the distribution of digital media in that country. Canada had the greatest number of file sharers by percentage of population in the world according to a 2004 report by the OECD. In 2009 however it was found that Canada had only the tenth greatest number of copyright infringements in the world according to a report by BayTSP, a U.S. anti-piracy company.

Arts and media industry trade groups, such as the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), strongly oppose and attempt to prevent copyright infringement through file sharing. The organizations particularly target the distribution of files via the Internet using peer-to-peer software. Efforts by trade groups to curb such infringement have been unsuccessful with chronic, widespread and rampant infringement continuing largely unabated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pink Visual</span> American pornography film production company

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oink's Pink Palace</span> Defunct BitTorrent tracker and music sharing community website

Oink's Pink Palace was a prominent BitTorrent tracker which operated from 2004 to 2007. Following a two-year investigation by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the site was shut down on 23 October 2007, by British and Dutch police agencies. These music industry organisations described OiNK as an "online pirate pre-release music club", whereas former users described it as one of the world's largest and most meticulously maintained online music repositories. About a month before the shut-down, music magazine Blender elected OiNK's creator, British software engineer Alan Ellis, to their The Powergeek 25 – the Most Influential People in Online Music list. Alan Ellis was tried for conspiracy to defraud at Teesside Crown Court, the first person in the UK to be prosecuted for illegal file-sharing, and found not guilty on 15 January 2010.

File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia, program files, documents or electronic books/magazines. It involves various legal aspects as it is often used to exchange data that is copyrighted or licensed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legal issues with BitTorrent</span>

The use of the BitTorrent protocol for the unauthorized sharing of copyrighted content generated a variety of novel legal issues. While the technology and related platforms are legal in many jurisdictions, law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies are attempting to address this avenue of copyright infringement. Notably, the use of BitTorrent in connection with copyrighted material may make the issuers of the BitTorrent file, link or metadata liable as an infringing party under some copyright laws. Similarly, the use of BitTorrent to procure illegal materials could potentially create liability for end users as an accomplice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motion Picture Association</span> Trade organization representing major American film studios

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, the mini-major Amazon MGM Studios, as well as the video streaming services Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) and known as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) from 1945 until September 2019, its original goal was to ensure the viability of the American film industry. In addition, the MPA established guidelines for film content which resulted in the creation of the Motion Picture Production Code in 1930. This code, also known as the Hays Code, was replaced by a voluntary film rating system in 1968, which is managed by the Classification and Rating Administration (CARA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copyright infringement</span> Illegal usage of copyrighted works

Copyright infringement is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, such as the right to reproduce, distribute, display or perform the protected work, or to produce derivative works. The copyright holder is usually the work's creator, or a publisher or other business to whom copyright has been assigned. Copyright holders routinely invoke legal and technological measures to prevent and penalize copyright infringement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Recording Industry Association of America</span> Trade organization in the U.S.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/or distribute approximately 85% of all legally sold recorded music in the United States". RIAA is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Web Sheriff</span> UK anti-piracy company

Web Sheriff is an anti-piracy company based in the United Kingdom that provides intellectual property, copyright and privacy rights protection services. The company monitors various websites that host links to downloads of music and film. Web Sheriff has been in operation since 2000, with two offices in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hotfile</span> File hosting website

Hotfile was a one-click file hosting website founded by Hotfile Corp in 2006 in Panama City, Panama. On December 4, 2013, Hotfile ceased all operations, the same day as signing a $4 million settlement with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA); the settlement had previously been misreported as $80 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music piracy</span> Copying and distribution of music without the consent of creators or copyright holders

Music piracy is the copying and distributing of recordings of a piece of music for which the rights owners did not give consent. In the contemporary legal environment, it is a form of copyright infringement, which may be either a civil wrong or a crime depending on jurisdiction. The late 20th and early 21st centuries saw much controversy over the ethics of redistributing media content, how much production and distribution companies in the media were losing, and the very scope of what ought to be considered piracy – and cases involving the piracy of music were among the most frequently discussed in the debate.

<i>Capitol Records, Inc. v. MP3Tunes, LLC</i> 2011 US legal case

Capitol Records, Inc. v. MP3tunes, LLC is a 2011 case from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York concerning copyright infringement and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). In the case, EMI Music Group and fourteen other record companies claimed copyright infringement against MP3tunes, which provides online music storage lockers, and MP3tunes's founder, Michael Robertson. In a decision that has ramifications for the future of online locker services, the court held that MP3tunes qualifies for safe harbor protection under the DMCA. However, the court found MP3tunes to still be liable for contributory copyright infringement in this case due to its failure to remove infringing songs after receiving takedown notices. The court also held that Robertson is liable for songs he personally copied from unauthorized websites.

Rightscorp. Inc is a Los-Angeles based copyright enforcement company, which locates alleged copyright violators and collects money from legal damages as well as out of court settlements on behalf of the copyright holder(s). Rightscorp manages copyrights of videos, music, and video games.

Sogou Baike ; Sogou Encyclopedia, formerly Soso Baike is a Chinese-language collaborative web-based encyclopedia provided by the Chinese tech company Sogou and formerly by the search engine Soso. Sogou is part of Tencent, China's largest internal portal. It was officially launched as Soso Baike in on 30 March 2009. The Soso Baike officially changed its name to Sogou Baike and launch it in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beijing Intellectual Property Court</span> Special Jurisdiction Court in China

The Beijing Intellectual Property Court is a Court of special jurisdiction in the People's Republic of China, which handles: "first-instance IP civil or administrative cases with professional features involving patents, new varieties of plants, layout design of integrated circuit, know-how and so on." There are similar courts based in Shanghai and Guangzhou.

References

  1. ↑ "IFPI releases Engaging with Music 2021". IFPI. 2021-10-21. Retrieved 2021-11-04.
  2. ↑ "IFPI releases 2018 Music Consumer Insight Report". IFPI. 2018-10-09. Retrieved 2021-11-04.
  3. ↑ "Recording Industry steps up campaign against internet piracy in China". ifpi.org. 2008-02-04. Retrieved 2010-03-11.
  4. ↑ Jacob, Alex (2008-04-07). "Baidu faces potential multi-billion dollar liability for breaching music copyrights". IFPI. Retrieved 2008-04-11.
  5. ↑ Maney, Kevin (2005-05-05). "If pirating grows, it may not be the end of music world". USA Today. Retrieved 2008-04-11.
  6. ↑ "THE RECORDING INDUSTRY 2006: Protecting Creativity in Music" (PDF). IFPI. 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-02-25. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
  7. ↑ Tew, Chris (2006-12-19). "Chinese Government promises to help fight online piracy". Web TV Wire. Retrieved 2008-04-15.
  8. ↑ Maidment, Paul (2008-04-08). "China Faces the Music". Forbes.com. Archived from the original on April 12, 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-11.
  9. ↑ McBride, Sarah (2008-04-07). "Chinese Firms Face the Music On Downloads". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2008-05-03.
  10. ↑ Utter, David A (2008-04-08). "Deep Linking Issues Return As Music Lawsuit Hits Baidu, Sohu". Web Pro News. Retrieved 2008-04-28.
  11. ↑ "Baidu faces potential multi-billion dollar liability for breaching music copyrights". IFPI. 2008-04-07. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
  12. ↑ Chen, Shu-Ching Jean (2008-02-28). "Look Who's Suing Baidu". Forbes.com. Retrieved 2008-04-11.[ dead link ]
  13. ↑ Einhorn, Brice, Xiang Ji, and Chi-Chu Tschang. "Deaf to Music Piracy." Business Week 10 Sep. 2007: 42–43.
  14. ↑ Chen, Shu-Ching Jean (2008-02-07). "Baidu, Sohu Served With New Suits By Music Companies". Forbes.com. Retrieved 2008-04-11.[ dead link ]
  15. ↑ Song, Berwin. "Make Room For Google." Billboard 1 Mar. 2008: 11.
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