China Passes Internet Copyright Legislation

Turtlewind writes "According to the Peoples' Daily Online, the Chinese government has passed new legislation regarding copyright on the internet. As well as increasing the penalties for online infringement and forcing ISPs to remove illegal content if given written notice, the law also bans "the production, import and supply of devices capable of evading or breaching technical measures of copyright protection". While everyone wants to see China improving its enforcement of IP rights, is this a step too far?"

Interesting.

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

As many others have noted in this forum before, the US ignored copyright, patents & trademarks as an emerging economy, right until its elite started to benefit from the trade monopolies granted by such IP.

It appears that China's elite is in a similar position to start benefitting more from the artificial market created by these laws.

On a slightly different note, it appears that Chinese journalists are more educated about internet copyright infringements than their western counterparts:

the uploading and downloading of Internet material without the copyright holder's permission. [emp mine]

Pity western journalists can't learn that. Every report on p2p I've ever read talks about "illegally downloading music" or "used for illegal software downloads" with no mention of copylefted / public domain / other non-infringing uses.

Priorities

[gentimjs]

I think you are dead-on with this ... I'd rather see the various oppressions easened-up than see some copyright crap passed. Frankly, China's loose stance on copyright/"IP"/etc is one of the few things I find redeeming about thier system.

Re:Hypocritical

[cciRRus]

China is not the top software piracy nation, but rather the third. Apparently, Vietnam is at the top of the list [bbc.co.uk], followed by Ukraine and then China.

Re:Banning devices

[vux984]

production, import and supply of devices capable of evading or breaching technical measures of copyright protection

Not just computers:

Video cameras, still cameras (including cellular phones), tape recorders, photocopiers, fax machines, scanners...

pretty much anything with an "analog capture mode" is capable of evading or breaching technical measures of copyright protection... ...microphones, web cams, pen and paper, sticks and clay