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China Passes Internet Copyright Legislation
Turtlewind writes "According to the Peoples' Daily Online, the Chinese government has passed new legislation regarding copyright on the internet. As well as increasing the penalties for online infringement and forcing ISPs to remove illegal content if given written notice, the law also bans "the production, import and supply of devices capable of evading or breaching technical measures of copyright protection". While everyone wants to see China improving its enforcement of IP rights, is this a step too far?"
Fortunately TFA doesn't say they have banned the production and export of devices that allow us to bypass DRM. Your supply of Chinese DVD players that can be hacked to skip the unskippable bits and disable Macrovision will not be affected.
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They're really giving way to a new form of Communism that only seems to select and use the parts that are useful to them given the time and place.
This has always been the way of China. In the long haul they have always been social pragmatists.
You may not be so different yourself. Have you adopted Germanic pagan tree worship, or do you just put up a "Christmas" tree because you like to?
KFG
The real question has China any will to enforce the law? Would anyone there cooperate with RIAA/MPAA as much as they do in EU/US?
No doubt many (me included) see the passed law only as a step needed to please World Trade Organization.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
Between the US and China there has been a rediculous number of infringements on human privacy and freedom of speech. I think the best way to stop the NSA and China's insistence on snooping and restricting is for as many people as possible to start participating in an anonymizing service, like the EFF's TOR Project. It wraps every web request in encryption and then routes it through other servers so noone can tell what the other person is looking for. I wrote a tutorial on putting this anonymizing software on a hidden volume in a USB key for those people who want to be able to surf the web, without big brother tracking them. Make your own DemocraKey, and let's take away every government's ability to regulate thought.
This would open the door to all sorts of draconian enforcements of the law. This would fit the stereotype of a bureaucrat's paradise. I bet other countries are taking notes.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
I'm one of a few people on slashdot who repudiate copyright. In fact, everything I create in an intellectual sense I freely offer to others to use as their own, if they wish. The more information that is out there, the more that industrial people can work with to create new inventions that satisfy our desire for more information and cheaper products.
China has been a Mecca of technology, and I think part of the reason for it is the rampant "piracy" and "theft of intellectual property" that has always been part of their culture. Cheap DVD players that play multiple formats, cheap pocket-sized CD players, even telephones that possess capabilities of file sharing and copying, well beyond what we get in the States and in the EU.
I also produce music (that would be the person behind raising the money), and I'm working with more local bands to repudiate copyright as well. As more smaller bands give up the right to their thoughts, words and hand motions, their fan base grows. When their fan base grows, their shows bring in more money -- much more money. Some bands are even facilitating "piracy" of "their" music by letting people bring their iPods to the show to get a free sync of all the music. There is more money to be made in entertainment without copyright than with.
I'm sad to see China cater to the West and their mad-monopoly-over-information craze. This step means nothing, though, as the average consumer will still use their own capital (their time, their computer and their internet connection) to satisfy the laws of supply and demand. Near infinite supply? Near microscopic price.
Especially those of us who bought region-free DVD players from them. I mean, it circumvents the region encoding "protection," right?
I don't get it.