The NCAC recently selected Top 10 China’s Copyright Events for 2016:
1.“Jianwang Campaign 2016” Action achieved significant results. From July to December, the NCAC, together with the CAC, MIIT and MPS, carried out “Jianwang Campaign 2016” Action against Internet infringement and piracy, focusing on renovating the copyright order of network literature. The special action has achieved significant results, resulting in investigation of 514 infringement and piracy cases in the digital environment, fines of 2.94 million yuan and shut-down of 391 infringing websites, as well as involving an amount of 200 million yuan. Through this special action, China’s copyright order in the digital environment continued to improve, and the copyright ecology in the digital environment continued to optimize.
2.China’s copyright industry contributed 7.28% of GDP. On April 27, the China Academy of Press and Publication released the research results of the economic contribution of China’s copyright industry in 2014: the increased value of China’s copyright industry reached 4628.781 billion yuan in 2014, accounting for 7.28% of the national GDP. The results showed that the copyright industry in our country has maintained a steady development trend in recent years, and the important role of the copyright industry in promoting economic and social development has become increasingly prominent.
3.More efforts were made to protect copyright at the judicial level. On November 27, the Central Committee of the CPC and State Council officially issued the Opinions on Improving the IP Protection System to Protect IP Rights in accordance with the Law, stressing the increase in the degree of punishment on violations of intellectual property rights. On December 14, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court made a final judgment on the case of Beijing Writers Association Chairman Liu Guanjun and Shandong Writers Association Chairman Zhang Wei vs. Sursen Company, changing the judgment of compensation of 10,000 yuan made by the court of first instance, and ordering the amount of compensation to be calculated in accordance with the standard of 300 yuan per thousand words for the remunerations for original works. In 2016, the people’s court continued to increase the amount of compensation for infringement and made more efforts to protect copyright at the judicial level.
4.Significant progress was made in promoting early entry into force of the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances. From July 21 to 22, representatives from dozens of countries along the Belt and Road gathered in Beijing to hold a high-level meeting on intellectual property rights. During the meeting, a special meeting was held on the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances, calling on all countries to join hands to promote the early entry into force and make unremitting efforts to establish a fair and reasonable international copyright system. By the end of 2016, 15 countries had ratified or acceded to the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances and significant progress had been made in promoting the entry into force of the Treaty.
5.The total volume of national copyright registration exceeded 2 million. In 2016, China’s total copyright registration amounted to 2,007,698, exceeding 2 million for the first time, with a growth of 22.33% compared to 2015. Among them, the software copyright registration exceeded 400,000. With the promotion of the construction of a powerful copyright country and the effective implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy, the work of copyright registration achieved a new leap. The substantial increase in the volume of copyright registration manifested the rapid improvement of our ability to innovate.
6.The First China Copyright Gold Award was issued upon the approval of the Central Committee. On December 5, the NCAC and the WIPO held the award ceremony for China Copyright Gold Award in Guangzhou, which was the first China Copyright Gold Award upon the approval of the Central Committee. Six prizes for works including Bronze Sunflower, five prizes for promotion and utilization including the prize awarded to Tencent, five prizes for protection including the prize awarded to the investigation group against crimes in terms of fake and shoddy goods of the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau and four prizes for management including the prize awarded to the Chengdu Municipal Copyright Bureau were set up. China Copyright Gold Award is the highest award in China’s copyright field, which has incentive functions to enhance the copyright creation, utilization, protection and management capabilities, as well as promote the construction of a powerful copyright country.
7.“Dehua experience” allowed global sharing. From November 14 to 18, the NCAC held an exhibition of excellent achievements in copyright protection for Chinese Dehua ceramics at the headquarters of WIPO in Geneva, Switzerland, and issued the Research on Promoting the Development of China’s Dehua Ceramic Industry by Copyright Protection (English edition), to promote globally the successful experience of Dehua in protecting the copyright in the ceramic industry. “Dehua experience” played an important guidance and reference role for developing countries to explore the close relationship between copyright protection and economic development.
8.Five collective copyright management organizations were included in the disconnection pilot list of national industry associations. In June, in accordance with the deployment and requirements of the Central Committee on disconnection between national industry associations and administrative agencies, the Music Copyright Society of China, China Audio-Video Copyright Association, China Written Works Copyright Society, Images Copyright Society of China and China Film Copyright Association were included in the disconnection pilot list of national industry associations for disconnection experiment. According to the regulations and implementation programs of the Central Committee, collective copyright management organizations would clarify the relationship with competent authorities, strengthen the positioning of the organizations to which the right holder belong, and play the role of better serving the right holders. The NCAC would continue to perform its statutory duties towards the collective copyright management organizations, supervise and support their activities.
9.Internet companies actively fulfilled the main body responsibility for copyright protection. On May 23, Baidu announced temporary closure of all post bars under the literature catalogue of Baidu Post Bar in batches, to carry out comprehensive rectification and inspection of pirated and infringing contents; on October 20, Qihoo 360 Technology Co., Ltd. announced the suspension of personal cloud storage services to enhance copyright protection. In 2016, Internet companies paid more attention to copyright protection, took the initiative to regulate their own behaviors, actively fulfilled the main body responsibility of enterprises, and made efforts to promote the network copyright order to improve with all sectors of society.
10.Network Copyright Industry Research Base was set up in Tencent. In October, the NCAC approved Tencent’s application for setting up our first Network Copyright Industry Research Base in the company, which would study the new development trend, new situation and coping strategies of domestic and foreign network copyright industry, as well as provide support for the development of China’s network copyright industry. The establishment of the base reflected the great importance attached by large-scale Internet companies to copyright work, and indicated the important position of copyright in the network industry.
Update: March 9, 2017