According to the recent 2009 China (Beijing) International Copyright Forum, National Copyright Administration of China will launch "Guidelines for Enforcement under the Information Network" next year to solve problems occurred in supervision, case registration, procedures of enforcement, collection of evidence, and punitive measures in the administrative enforcement of copyright over the network.
Under the Regulations on the Protection of the Right of Communication through Information Network, copyright administration can confiscate computers and other equipment for online services, where the illegal acts are severe, criminal liabilities can be resorted to. However, there is no clear definition in terms of the severe circumstances, which led to great differentiation in enforcement by local administrative authorities. The Guidelines will make it clear that if the website operator has no qualification for operation and the main contents offered are pirated, or it repeated the illegal acts after punishment, these said acts will be regarded as “severe circumstances” .Those measures will improve the supervision and efficiency of enforcement of online copyright protection. Besides, China will amend the Copyright Law next year and add provisions on information dissemination.
In the era of 3G, people rely more and more on Internet for books, pictures, music, videos. At present, there are 106 electronic publishing houses and 6,000 kinds of electronic publications in Beijing per year, which has offered a huge space for web media development and has brought challenges for the copyright protection.
