By Liu Baijia (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-10-29 11:18

Copyright under-protection remains a critical issue in China, but governments shouldn't be alone in doing the heavy lifting, says a senior copyright official.

Yan Xiaohong, vice-minister of the General Administration of Press and Publication and deputy director general of the National Copyright Administration (NAC), says there is heated debate in China about whether the country gives too much protection or inadequate protection to intellectual properties (IPs), but at least in the field of copyrights, underprotection is still the main issue.

"In our effort to balance the protection of rights and reasonable use of the rights, lack of adequate protection remains the major issue," Yan said at a seminar at Renmin University of China on the training of IP talents.

In the past 21 years, China has built a legislative system as strong as those in many developed countries.

Xu Jialu, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said at the seminar that it took the country some 20 years to put in place an IP legal framework, that took many developed nations at least 100 years to finish.

Last year, copyright administrative officials investigated and fined organizations and people involved in 8,524 cases, and advised police and the procuratorate to bring 235 cases to court.

Law enforcement officers confiscated 18 million pirated books, 48 million audio and video discs and 3.79 million copies of pirated software.

All government agencies had adopted legitimate software by the end of last year while large State-owned enterprises were required to follow suit in their corporate headquarters first and later expand to all units.

The use of legitimate software also expanded from operating systems and office automation applications to other professional software like Adobe and Autodesk products.

Because many copyright owners are foreign companies, there have been complaints that strict protection only benefits foreign companies.

"We will never give up or loosen our efforts in the protection of copyrights, because IP rights protection is of fundamental interest to our nation," Yan says.

He cites figures from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) that say copyright-related businesses contributed 11.12 percent of US gross domestic product (GDP), or US$1.38 trillion, in 2005. Meanwhile, 5.38 million people were employed in the industry, and in the United Kingdom, the copyright industry reached 53 billion pounds in 2002.

In China last year, culture and software industry sales reached 800 billion yuan (US$107 billion).

The NAC and WIPO recently launched a three-year joint research project that aims to pinpoint the exact contribution of the copyright industry to China's economy.

Yan says the country has used both administrative and legal measures to enforce protection. But considering the complexity of enforcement, administrative protection should be further strengthened.

"We cannot criticize this dual protection on one hand for the government's interference and on the other hand say the government should take more responsibility," he says.

"The government has an important responsibility to protect copyrights, but not all responsibility."

After building a comprehensive legal framework, China faces the tougher task of implementing the laws.

While some foreign countries and analysts call for tougher actions on a broader scope, Yan says criminal charges and action should not be abused and should target a small number of large and malicious violations. For most disputes, education, consultation and civil lawsuits are more effective.

Countries including the United States have complained that the number of criminal charges is too low and have asked China to take tougher criminal action. The US even brought China to the World Trade Organization.

"For the general public, who buy pirated goods for small personal benefits, we should educate them and education is the only way," Yan says. "Bringing them to prison is not a good solution."

In April, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued a joint interpretation, sharply lowering the threshold for criminal charges against piracy set three years ago. According to the rule, organizations and individuals selling 500 pirated discs, instead of 1,000 in the 2004 rule, can receive a three year sentence, while those selling 2,500 copies can be sent to prison for seven years.

As China increases efforts to protect copyrights, Yan says intermediate agencies should play a bigger role.

"We are encouraging the development of copyright protection organizations and agencies, which are new to China, due to its short history of IP work, and we face a lot of difficulties in this area," he says.

There are only 27 copyright agencies in China and most of them lack experience in international operations.

As the world develops a stronger appetite for books and publications from the country, qualified agencies are in dire shortage.