Society

Chinese video websites ordered to check copyrights

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-09-16 00:25

BEIJING - China's press watchdog has included 15 major domestic video websites on its self-check list and ordered them to examine copyright issues and remove unauthorized videos.

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According to Wang Ziqiang, a senior official with the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), the 15 sites, including youku.com, ku6.com and video.baidu.com, took up more than 80 percent of the country's video market share.

"If these websites can abide by the laws and regulations with an honest attitude, the entire copyright infringement situation on the Internet will be greatly relieved," Wang said Wednesday at a meeting on the supervision of video websites.

The 15 sites have been ordered to remove all videos which have not been authorized or had unknown copyright terms and conditions.

The deadline for their self-check is Sept 21.

Further, Wang urged other online groups to improve their copyright management and avoid infringement.

Figures show that since 2005, the National Copyright Administration, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have uncovered 2,621 cases of online copyright infringement, with 1,198 illegal sites being shut down.