A few days ago a new Chinese law went into effect that establishes fines for those that distribute pirated copies of music, movies, and software over the internet. The fine, 100,000 yuan or $12,500 USD, is an interesting new attempt to finally give some semblance of teeth to it’s efforts to crack down on the pirating of goods in China.
According to an article on Bloomberg.com, “About 90% of all recordings in China are illegal, with sales of pirated music worth about $400 million annually.” Certainly no small amount of cash for an industry reeling from continual worldwide annual losses in the billions of dollars.
Originally passed on May 18th by China’s State Council, the new criminal law governs internet distribution of pirated goods, mandating that web sites be held 
liable for the material along with those who produced it as well. With this new law taking effect, companies now have a criminal law in addition to a civil one that was used in the past, to combat online vendors of pirated goods.
The main difference between a criminal case and a civil one has to do with what parties will be involve. A criminal case involves the government authorities and can result in fines and jail time. A civil case merely involves private parties and can result only in the recuperation of financial damages.
Last year a civil case against Baidu.com, China’s main search engine, was filed as a group effort on behalf of Sony BMG, Warner, EMI Group, Universal Music Group, Go East Entertainment Co., Gold Label Entertainment Ltd. and Cinepoly Records Co. to no avail. To this day no outcome has been reached yet in the case and it languishes in appeals between the two parties. This new criminal law allows the record companies a different avenue to pursue their case.
As Bloomberg.com notes, ‘Under the new law, Web sites will need to give authorities contact information for owners of sites that distribute pirated material.”
Though it’s timing is apparently unrelated, as the law was passed more than a month and a half ago, there was a recent article that came out that noted how piracy is in fact hurting China’s own industries. Thus, it is interesting if this describes the realization on the part of the chinese government that it’s failure in combating piracy has a domestic impact as well, in turn setting in motion their desire to address it. One can only guess when it comes to the reason the Chinese authorities act as they do. But, one thing is certain, they decided it was in their own best interests to do so. They always do and say things with a nationalist mindset in play, so it’s safe to assume they decided that their legally produced domestic goods need protection from piracy as well.
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