China launches campaign to combat movie piracy during Spring Festival holiday

BEIJING -- In the run-up to the Spring Festival, relevant Chinese authorities have launched a targeted campaign to protect the copyright of films screened during the holiday season, the National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) said Wednesday.

The campaign, jointly initiated by the NCAC, the China Film Administration, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, has adopted measures such as issuing preemptive warnings to major online service providers and cinemas and stepping up routine law enforcement and online scrutiny to further safeguard the copyright of films at the box office.

As part of this campaign, the supervision and monitoring of cinemas and relevant online service providers have also been strengthened, with increased efforts to handle cases involving the unauthorized recording of movies in cinemas and the dissemination of illegal movie copies.

On Wednesday, the NCAC also released the first list of key movies under copyright protection for 2024, which includes "Rob & Roll," "The Movie Emperor," "Article 20," "YOLO," "Pegasus 2," "Viva La Vida," "Boonie Bears: Time Twist," and "Ba Jie."

The NCAC has called for protective measures from relevant online service providers to prevent unauthorized online streaming and uploading of these key productions.

The Spring Festival holiday is usually a lucrative period for China's film industry, contributing a sizable portion of the overall box office revenue for the year.