TV makers welcome stricter South Korean creative copyright

South Korea's recently approved laws targeting plagiarism in music and television content have been welcomed in China, despite the fact it will mean that domestic TV program makers will be scrutinized more heavily.

On Jan 30, the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, the country's top legislature, passed amendments for two laws related to music and cultural content, aimed at improving the protection of intellectual property rights overseas.

According to the new amendments, the South Korean minister of culture, sports and tourism can now seek help from the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other central administrative bodies to deal with overseas IP infringements.

The amendments will take effect on July 30.

According to South Korean news agency News 1, the national assembly approving such amendments aims to fight against the rampant plagiarism of entertainment shows, TV dramas and movies in foreign countries, especially China.

In recent years, several popular Chinese TV entertainment shows have rather too closely resembled some specific South Korean hits. For example, Back to Field and The Rap of China, which were aired last year, are accused of copying South Korea's Three Meals A Day and Show Me the Money, respectively. The Chinese iterations of these programs feature similar logos, stage designs and props.

Given this fact, many Chinese program makers have reacted positively to the new laws, saying domestic entertainment is set to benefit from far greater creativity and innovation in the industry.

A large number of Chinese netizens have also shown strong support, with over 6,000 favorable comments and more than 20,000 reposts of the announcement released by ICNKR - a social media platform for Chinese in South Korea - on its Weibo account on Jan 31.

Zhang Yiwu, a professor at the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Peking University, told Beijing Daily that it is generally believed that South Korea has a more mature cultural and creative industry compared with China in terms of development.

"When China has shown a catching-up momentum in the industry and even started to affect the framework of the global entertainment sector, it will naturally make South Korea pay more attention to the IP field," he said.

The Global Times also cited Zhang as saying that although China has a loophole in its IP system in its cultural industry, it has witnessed a significant improvement in IP trade and protection as a whole.

In 2016, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television issued guidelines to encouraged program makers to create more original content.

Changes may take a long time, but "the more difficult it is, the more efforts the Chinese entertainment industry should make to reduce dependence on foreign TV program formats", said Kan Naiqing, a Chinese TV program maker.

haonan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 02/08/2018 page17)