The 18th Beijing International Book Fair lowered its curtain on September 4th. A total of 2,953 copyright trade agreements were signed between China and foreign countries (+574 y-o-y) [see post "Copyright export breakthrough on 17th Beijing International Book Fair"]. Among them, 1,412 copyrights were sold or sought cooperation with foreign publishers, a 17 percent rise [...]
Archive for the ‘copyright’ category
Roads of China’s digital publishing export
06/09/2011During the Beijing International Book Fair, journalists of China Press and Publishing Journal interviewed participants about their viewpoints and experiences concerning “go out”. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP): new content channels and technology for overseas markets. To make its products more suitable for overseas markets, FLTRP has adapted content to different media formats [...]
China’s publishing industry: “going out” success factors
05/09/2011According to the 2011 Press and Publication Industry Report released recently, China’s “deficit” in copyright trade is narrowing [see post "China’s copyright trade improving"], and the “go out” strategy of Chinese publications has made excellent progress. Major reasons are: Focus on both domestic and foreign markets At present, China’s publishing companies participate in book fairs [...]
Digital copyright protection research projects initiated in China
31/08/2011On August 26th, the “Research and Application of Mobile Publication Copyright Protection” project to protect digital copyright during the distribution process of mobile publications and the “e-Reader Application Demonstration” project to establish a digital copyright protection technology system compatible with different ebook readers were launched. China Publishing Group and Hanwang Technology participate in these projects, [...]
China’s copyright trade improving
31/08/2011In recent years, the ratio between copyright import & export has gradually been reduced. According to the “2010 Analysis Report on the News and Publishing Industry”, the proportion of copyright export to copyright import was 1:2.9 in 2010, down from 1:3.3 a year earlier. During last year’s Beijing International Book Fair, a total of 2379 [...]
Telecoms deemed in dominating position for mobile reading in China
30/08/2011With Shengda Literature’s founding in 2008, the real commercial operation of online literature began, and the company became the biggest winner in the mobile market. Literature websites continue to develop rapidly due to mobile reading offers such as China Mobile Reading Base [see previous post "Mobile phones in China – competition for e-readers"], and they [...]
Hot issues in China on copyright on the Internet
29/08/2011The 2011 Media Seminar on Hot Copyright Issues was held in Beijing on August 19-20, hosted by the National Copyright Administration. Some of the hot topics discussed are listed below. [Note: I'm no legal expert, so as always: use at your own risk.] Can network media reproduce the reports of paper media arbitrarily? Network media [...]
Baidu + Fanshu.com: new digital book market monopoly on the horizon in China?
11/08/2011Two recent events caused a wake-up call for online booksellers in China, who had felt save from the uncertain future of physical bookstores: Online bookstore Jingdong Mall supposedly paid around 10 million RMB for exclusive debut rights to Annie Baobei‘s new novel. [As mentioned on her blog, "Spring Feast" -my translation of 春宴- was available [...]
Chinese and British copyright management departments held video conference
03/08/2011On July 27, China’s National Copyright Adminstration and Britain’s Intellectual Property Office held their second video meeting in 2011 as agreed on in last year’s MoU. National Copyright Adminstration personnel introduced the special campaigns against IPR infringement and the production and sales of counterfeit goods. The third revision of the “Copyright Law” was also addressed. [...]
Author sues publishing house for “fake book” (China)
02/08/2011Recently, authoress Yang Lan sued the Publishing House of Beijing University of Technology and an author for attributing her as the writer of a book without authorization, requesting 600,000 RMB in compensation and an apology. Yang Lan is not the only celebrity that suffered from a “fake book”, meaning that an author’s identity was stolen [...]
Digital publishing standards to be issued in China before the end of 2011
26/07/2011A standards system for the digital publishing industry will be released officially before the end of this year, with thirteen enterprises such as China Online, Baidu, China Mobile, Hanvon and Founder taking part in the formulation of the detailed classification standards for e-books, mobile publishing, audio publications etc. There is no doubt that these enterprises [...]
Baidu Library signs agreement with publishers to sell authorised ebooks （China）
19/07/2011After the copyright infringement allegations against Baidu Library in March，an agreement to sell ebooks was now reached with several publishing houses and consulting companies in the press industry including Wenhui Publishing House， Blue Lion Readers’ Club and eBook House Culture. There are currently 10,067 authorised ebooks sold in Baidu Library from 47 copyright holders. Ebooks [...]
China’s Copyright Law to be revised – adjust to digital age
18/07/2011On July 13th, GAPP and China’s National Copyright Administration held the kick-off meeting for the 3rd revision of the Copyright Law, which was initially enacted 20 years ago and since then has been revised twice in 2001 and 2010. Liu Binjie, the Director of GAPP, said that it is important to revise the law in [...]
Digital Publishing in China in the next five years: 6 focal areas of development
12/07/2011At the opening of the Fourth Chinese Digital Publishing Exposition on July 6th at the Beijing International Conference Center, General Adminstration of Press and Publication Vice Director Sun Shoushan gave a speech on “Being Confident and Creative to Accelerate Sustainable Development of Digital Publishing”. Sun stated that in order to raise the share of digital [...]
Wake-up call for traditional publishers: Appeal in China’s first digital copyright case turned down – industry voices
06/07/2011On July 4th, China’s so-called “first digital copyright case” [see post "First digital copyright case decided in China"] came to an end with the court dismissing Zhonghua Book Company’s appeal. Voices of publishing insiders on this case: Bi Yu of Light Industry (Beijing) Web Press Ltd.: Publishing houses should increase competitiveness in digital copyright and [...]
China’s “Digest” magazine relaunched – copyright agreements with foreign media
05/07/2011Digest, a magazine compiling overseas news and information, has a history of thirty years and was winner of the National Social Science Journal Top 100 for 3 years and National Journal Prize nominee for 2 years. The relaunched magazine puts the focus on finance and current politics, but also treats science and technology development and [...]
Copyright in China: Writer Press asking online bookstores to stop sales of infringing books
05/07/2011Writer Press is asking big online bookstores like Dangdang, Joyo and 360Buy to stop selling books from Jiuzhou Press using the “Writer Cup” or “The 13th New Concept Writing Contest” name and trademark, since Mengya magazine’s publishing house is the only one that can use the logo of “Writer Cup” according to an authorization agreement [...]
First digital copyright case decided in China
28/06/2011In October, 2009, Zhonghua Book Company accused Hanvon Technology of infringing its copyright. Last week, the verdict on China’s “first digital copyright case” came down: Zhonghua Book Company lost the lawsuit. The case reflects the disorder in the digital copyright trading market, therefore, establishing a fair digital copyright sharing platform becomes very necessary and urgent. [...]
Digital Copyright Identifier: Pilot project of China’s Copyright Protection Center
07/06/2011Recently, China’s Copyright Protection Center signed an agreement with China Mobile Zhejiang Reading Base for a mobile reading Comic Project. It is the first demonstration application for the Digital Copyright Identifier (DCI) – a new public service model of digital copyright established by the center. The DCI system can replace the content providers’ internal audit [...]
The necessity of collective copyright management in China
07/06/2011[Note: The article treats the music industry, but the situation concerning collective copyright management is similar in publishing, see previous posts "Digital copyright chaos in China – collective management around the corner?" and "Collective management: a useful way to solve digital copyright problems".] In the spring of 2011, there were several hot cases on copyright [...]
Legal and copyright issues of China’s publishing industry’s globalization
06/06/2011How copyright trade can “go out” during the 12th Five-Year Plan period is a topic of common concern to copyright industry insiders. From a legal perspective, “go out” means copyright foreign trade. This process mainly involves three legal problems: The effectiveness of work and its copyright. Having a legal, effective work and its copyright is [...]
A brief summary of the China Publishing (Copyright) Development Forum
31/05/2011With the subject of “Integration and improvement: Realizing win-win in traditional & digital publishing”, the China Publishing (Copyright) Development Forum was held on May 28 in Heilongjiang, consisting of two parts. Yan Xiaohong, Vice-Director of GAPP, hosted the first part, in which policy speeches were given: Liu Binjie, GAPP’s Director, gave a speech on “Speeding [...]
Publishing and distribution of educational publications in China – fighting piracy and corruption
30/05/2011According to the Working Meeting on Resisting Unreasonable Charges in Education held on May 26th, China’s General Administration of Press and Publication will focus on cleaning scattered and excess material and fighting against pirated and illegal publications in 2011 in order to further standardize publishing and distribution of teaching materials. Source: GAPP: priorities for teaching [...]
China’s Commercial Press sells digital copyright to Wolters Kluwer
26/05/2011In last August, Commercial Press established a strategic cooperative partnership and signed a copyright trade framework agreement with Wolters Kluwer. In the same year, Commercial Press imported the English translation copyright for a series of labor and social security books from the latter. On May 24th, the two sides signed another trade agreement: Commercial Press [...]
21st China Book Trade Fair to be held May 27th – 30th
19/05/2011The 21st China Book Trade Fair will be held May 27th to 30th in Heilongjiang Province, 36 delegations and 100,000 people are expected to attend the fair. The organizer provides 4,000 booths for displaying 300,000 publications, 60% of them will be newly published or key books. A series of thematic activities such as China Copyright [...]
Three statements on Internet copyright protection of digital publishing in China
18/05/2011Internet copyright piracy has a big impact on the development of digital publishing. Measures to stop online copyright infringement and piracy were a hot topic at the 7th China International Cultural Industry Fair. The managers of online platforms should set a good example of copyright protection A series of digital copyright infringement cases threatens the [...]
Question to policymakers in China: overprotecting copyright?
17/05/2011In a Global Times opinion piece “Copyright battles shouldn’t be fought for wrong reasons” picks up the recent verdict in the Shanda / Baidu copyright case (see previous post “Baidu beaten in landmark copyright case, must compensate Shanda Literature“). Referring to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which “is criticized for being an US wish-list that would create [...]
2nd Cross-Straits Copyright Trade Fair: volume to reach 1 bln RMB (China)
16/05/2011The 2nd Cross Straits Copyright Industry High-quality Products Trade Fair will be held at the Fuzhou Straits International Exhibition Center May 18th – 22nd. Four hundred enterprises including seventy comic & game enterprises will attend the fair and exhibit more than 1,500 high-quality products. The trade volume is expected to reach one billion RMB. Source: [...]
Copyright trade between Mainland China and Taiwan increased by 50% in 2010
12/05/2011According to the news from the 7th Straits Economic & Trade Cultural Forum, the news and publishing industry copyright trade between the mainland and Taiwan increased by 50% in 2010. Hao Zhensheng, Director of China News Publishing Research Institute, said that the trade increased especially in the book market. More and more Taiwan publishers intend [...]
“Guiding Opinions on Copyright Asset Evaluation” to be implemented in July (China)
12/05/2011In order to promote the creative industry’s development, China’s first “Guiding Opinions on Copyright Asset Evaluation” will be implemented beginning in July. The “Opinions” will regulate the principles and standards of copyright asset evaluation from the angle of definitions, requirements, objects, operation and disclosure, so as to solve the difficulties in evaluating copyright assets. Liu [...]
Baidu beaten in landmark copyright case, must compensate Shanda Literature
12/05/2011The article in Global Times reports: “A Shanghai district court has ordered search engine giant Baidu to pay half a million yuan ($75,700) in compensation to Shanda Literature, an original content provider website, in a major copyright lawsuit case.” The reason stated is that Baidu ” did not remove unauthorized literary works from its website [...]
Wikipedia’s Signport: no point to sue Baidu
10/05/2011As mentioned in a previous post, Baidu’s encyclopedia was accused of copyright infringement in China by unofficial members of Chinese Wikipedia since the company was not observing the license terms. An article in yesterday’s Wikipedia Signpost cites Wikimedia Chair Ting Chen’s comment “on the futility of legal action: “Fact is that Baidu doesn’t care. We [...]
After literature and MP3: Baidu’s encyclopedia accused of copyright infringement in China
04/05/2011Baidu’s open online encyclopedia Baidu baike (“Baidupedia”) was accused of copyright infringement by unofficial members of Chinese Wikipedia recently. The infringement involves quoting and modifying Wikipedia’s content without specifying author or source, sharing not in accordance with Wikipedia’s CC-by-sa-3.0 license, and without permission from Wikipedia. The copyright infringement has not been confirmed by Wikipedia Foundation, but [...]
2011 Top 10 Chinese Copyright Owners Competition started
03/05/2011The 2011 Top 10 Chinese Copyright Owners Competition, sponsored by China Copyright Protection Center, was started on April 26th with the motto “Copyright Value – New Source of Capital”. Copyright protection consciousness, work’s value, and social influence will be measured in this competition. Anyone with a China Copyright Protection Center registration certificate can participate. The [...]
Chinese publishers’ vicious competition for foreign bestseller’s copyright
02/05/2011The royalty paid for copyright import of foreign bestsellers has increased drastically. An industry insider thinks that Chinese publishers’ vicious price competition caused a rise in royalty and will eventually hurt readers. Faced with Chinese publishers’ scramble, copyright holders of foreign bestsellers are in a strong position, selling at high market prices. In order to [...]
Pirated books in App Store: Chinese publishers to fight against rampant copyright infringement
29/04/2011After the fight against Baidu’s copyright infringement, Chinese publishers intend to join hands, targeting Apple as the next enemy. The writer Wu Xiaobo found his work “Thirty Years’ Surging” ["Jidang sanshi nian", there must be a better translation for the title...] sold in the App Store at a price of 1.99 USD, although neither he [...]
China’s printing service export revenue to reach 100 billion RMB in 2015
28/04/2011According to the 12th Five-Year Development Plan for the Press & Publication Industry, China will promote its printing service export and encourage enterprises to undertake international high-end printing processing business. The printing service export revenue is expected to reach 100 billion RMB in 2015. Some specific actions and figures are given in the plan for [...]
Key tasks of China’s Five-Year Plan for Copyright Work
28/04/2011According to the 12th Five-Year Plan for Copyright Work released by the China National Copyright Administration on April 20th, five key tasks were confirmed: To strengthen copyright service function, completing public service and social participation system. To encourage copyright creation, promoting the copyright-related industries’ healthy development. To complete propaganda and training systems, improving copyright protection [...]
First iPad-related copyright case goes to court in China
28/04/2011For using the content of Beijing News without authorization, the developers of the “Chinese Newspapers & Periodicals” iPad application were sued for compensation of 600,000 RMB. The defendant claims that they only integrate publicly available content for users’ free reading and the application is still for trial use, not for commercial operation. Zhang Hongbo, deputy [...]
China’s newspaper & periodical publishing units to be halved
26/04/2011According to the 12th Five-Year Development Plan for the Press & Publication Industry released by GAPP on April 20th, the number of China’s newspaper and periodical publishing units will be halved to fewer than 5,000 during the 12th five-year period. Ten cluster centers for the newspaper & periodical publishing industry with strong radiation capability and [...]
2010-2011 Chinese Private Book Industry Development Report published
20/04/2011According to the 2010-2011 Chinese Private Book Industry Development Report published during the recent 8th Chinese Private Book Industry Development Forum, the cooperation between the private book industry and state-owned publication companies in China is getting deeper. In 2010, three problems affected China’s private book industry: Copyright issues of teaching material publications. Mass publishing’s dilemma [...]
China launches 2011 Nationwide IPR Awareness Week
20/04/2011The 2011 China Nationwide Interlectual Property Rights Publicity Week, sponsored by 25 departments such as the State Intellectual Property Office and the State Copyright Bureau, will take place April 20-26th, with “Intellectual Property Promoting the Economic Transformation” as theme. The activity aims to raise awareness of the supporting role that intellctual property plays in the [...]
GAPP’s research guidelines for 2011 released (China)
19/04/2011The General Administration of Print and Publications published its Research Guidelines for this year. Study projects are as follows: Reform issues in the news and publishing industry -Obvious problems in the system reform of non-political press units -Solutions for distribution systems of Party newspapers -Models on guiding and regulating non-public capital to join the news [...]
Alibaba enters digital publishing with iPhone client and Taobao Bookstore
18/04/2011After Baidu and Shanda, Chinese e-business giant Alibaba, revealed its digital publishing plan. An iphone client named Taobao Bookstore is launched, representing the first such e-book platform with copyrighted works in China. Relying on the high traffic volume on its Taobao online e-commerce website, Alibaba aims for users who want to download copyrighted works, of [...]
China’s International Book Promotion Plan: digitize and localize
14/04/2011According to the recently held 7th meeting on the China International Book Promotion Plan, its focus will be on these three aspects: Improve quantity and quality of copyright export. Further strengthening the ability to select topics with an international level and direction. Digital publishing to “go out”. Encouraging excellent publications to enter the international market [...]
“China Copyright Yearbook 2010″ published
12/04/2011Compiled by the National Copyright Administration, edited and published by China Renmin University Press and China Renmin University Copyright Trade Base, this only official yearbook provides comprehensive information on China’s copyright creation, utilization, protection and management. Source: “China Copyright Yearbook 2010″ published (in Chinese) Note: Apparently hasn’t made it into the online bookstores yet.
Fuzhou Strait Creative Industry Copyright Fair held (China)
12/04/2011The 2nd Fuzhou Strait Copyright Creative Industry Fair will be held May 18-22 with three sections: Show area for excellent copyright works, including animation, woodcarving arts, original music etc. Sales area of copyright products, selling the creative works from theMainland and Taiwan Negotiation area appraisal, copyright registration etc. Compared with the first fair, more enterprises [...]
12 provincial and municipal Xinhua bookstores suggest fighting against e-book piracy (China)
11/04/2011Recently, Xinhua Bookstores in 12 provinces and municipalities called for fighting e-book piracy. In order to meet the e-reading needs, Xinhua Bookstores set up special in-store areas for e-book sales, but e-book piracy has threatened the development of publishing houses and bookstores. According to the joint statement, traditional bookstores should also develop e-book sales as [...]
