New watchdog set up to fight spread of media plagiarism

A copyright protection association was established by major Chinese financial media groups last week, as part of efforts to regulate and confront the problem of plagiarism in the domestic media market.

An online copyright trading platform will also be established, to buy and sell content from the media - either stories or audios and videos.

Association members will have a set price for their content, ensuring that no one sells it too cheaply.

That's according to senior executives from the Central Media Association of China Industrial Newspapers, the initiator of the association, speaking at a forum held in Beijing on Dec 23.

"Copyright is the core value of the media," said Liu Canguo, executive secretary-general of the association.

"For State-owned media, copyright is also an intangible national asset, that no one has the right to use for no charge or for a negligible price."

Liu added some media thought protecting their copyright might weaken their influence with the public.

"The two are not contradictory if their content is valuable enough," he said.

More than 240,000 stories on 27,350 websites or other media were suspected to have violated the copyright of 80,000 original pieces, owned by 78 financial media groups in 2017, data from a report released at the forum showed.

Over 90 percent of the websites surveyed had possibly copied 10 stories or less, the report found.

Difficulties in the management of self-owned copyright assets, monitoring and calculating acts of infringement, were major challenges in copyright protection for the media, industry insiders said.

The newly established association will work with media groups to provide technological support, including intelligent monitoring. It will help record and detect infringements, either for no cost or at a low cost for its members, the forum was told.

Weng Beibei, commercial vice-president of Yuanben Blockchain, one of the companies providing technical support for the new association, outlined some solutions to the problem.

Weng said these included having a uniform and standardized database, and orderly distribution of authorized products.

She said violation of original content not only caused a loss of earnings, but also undermined the media's special and sometimes unique bond with its consumers or users.

All the content uploaded in Yuanben's database will be marked with basic information. This will include the original authors, or creators, and will be data that cannot be changed, modified or deleted.

This will be intrinsic to the copyright trading, according to the company.

Earlier this year, the National Copyright Administration released a 2016-20 plan for copyright issues. It stressed the importance of raising awareness about copyright protection, and promoted the development of the copyright industry, as well as optimizing the current system.

The new association is expected to play a role in implementing and shaping copyright law, strengthening media product monitoring, and organizing related training and promotional events.

Similar copyright protection associations targeting the media - in the social, legal, educational, technological, cultural and medical fields - will be established in the future, according to the Central Media Association of China Industrial Newspapers.

chenmeiling@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/28/2017 page17)