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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?"
I don't think that's quite true.
It appears that China's elite is in a similar position to start benefitting more from the artificial market created by these laws.
On a slightly different note, it appears that Chinese journalists are more educated about internet copyright infringements than their western counterparts:Pity western journalists can't learn that. Every report on p2p I've ever read talks about "illegally downloading music" or "used for illegal software downloads" with no mention of copylefted / public domain / other non-infringing uses.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
While everyone wants to see China improving its enforcement of IP rights, is this a step too far?
If by everyone, you mean some, then you are right. You clearly do not speak for everyone or for me. There is great value in having diversity in laws in different areas of the world, it is sad to see freedoms lost, and it is obvious to me that China will borrow our worst policies, including DCMA-style anti-circumvention nonsense.
the law also bans "the production, import and supply of devices capable of evading or breaching technical measures of copyright protection".
Doesn't that describe general purpose computers?
If the govt becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law, it invites man to become his own law, it invites anarchy
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.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
While everyone wants to see China improving its enforcement of IP human rights.
There, fixed it for you.
I couldn't give a damn about Chinese IP rights, but this action is rather indicative of where the pressure from the West is being directed. Our governments don't care if the Chinese people are oppresssed, as long as our corporations aren't getting ripped off.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Let me guess what this will be used for.
...
Copyright on the AIDS prevalence reports in the China rural population after the massive infections produced by various "buy your blood for money" scam artists of the late 90-es.
Copyright on the documentation about the Three Gorges dam and its environmental assessment
Copyright on the studies about the history of Tibet
Copyright on the
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
ironclad Copyright laws in a country that would rather execute you than listen to what you have to say.
/Counts the days to a world wide boycott on Music/Movies following the first Copyright Infringement conviction that is followed by the person's execution.
Remember everyone, this is legislation coming from a government that proclaims itself to be communist. According to the ideas set down long ago by Marx & Engels, there is no sense of private property--yet we're seeing laws protecting intellectual property. Doesn't make much sense. Then again, there isn't any idea of a market system in Communism yet China is rife and growing with rudimentary free markets and international business.
Why do we see the leader of the Communist Party arguing for strengthening stronger IP rights?
Could they at least change the name of their party? 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. Seriously, what part of the original idea of Communism is left without these two things? They are picking a very odd way to abolish social classes. Perhaps they should be called Neo-Communists or just flat out trend-Communists.
My work here is dung.
I think you are dead-on with this ... I'd rather see the various oppressions easened-up than see some copyright crap passed. Frankly, China's loose stance on copyright/"IP"/etc is one of the few things I find redeeming about thier system.
The ban includes the production of devices that can be used to circumvent IP protections...
I guess Lenovo is about to file the Chinese equivalent of Chapter 11.
Stupid Human Rights Tricks...
Prohibition has never been the answer, how many times do we need to learn this?
if I claimed I was emperor just because some watery tart lobbed a scimitar at me they'd put me away!
Well, its actually not the largest pirate nation, the largest would probably be malaysia. But its true, only too often a freightship attacked and taken over in the malacca strait or south china sea finds its way into chinese ports.
3 4
http://www.imo.org/Legal/mainframe.asp?topic_id=3
"The more prohibitions there are, The poorer the people will be" -- Lao Tse
While everyone wants to see China improving its enforcement of IP rights, is this a step too far?"
/. crowd will be up in arms about software piracy, China's poor record against piracy etc.
While the entire article speaks specifically about Copyright violations only, the summary lumps it under 'Intellectual Property' and confuses the issue. And immediately, the
When the term "intellectual property" is itself not clearly defined, and software patents - a key component of the so-called "IP" - are not treated equally by all nations.... why should we over-simplify this matter?
China's suposed violations of s/w patents, licenses and trademarks have no bearing on the legislation being debated.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
You can't copyright a word, but then again, much of copyright law seems to elude your typical slashdot reader. Also, last I checked, copyright has nothing to do with government censorship of facts and information.
China is not the top software piracy nation, but rather the third. Apparently, Vietnam is at the top of the list, followed by Ukraine and then China.
w00t
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.
-A twenty year copyright term provides enough incentive for the creation of works and the advancement of science and the useful arts
-Recent technology has made it quite easy for an author to recoup a hefty reward for a popular piece of writing/art over the course of twenty years.
It seems absurd to me that as the world gets more interconnected, making it easier for an author to find and sell to hisher market in a short time period, copyright terms are being extended
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
You still have the recourse of finding new legislators to start repealing these bogus "intellectual property" laws. Good luck with that. The trend in 80% of (democratic) governments is to extend the scope and length of copyright coverage even more, and to have these extensions enforceable across international boundaries through WIPO etc.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
Oh, I dunno. I could see censorship done via IP law, even if not directly.
What if, for example, P2P programs caught on in China as a way to circumvent government censorship? Banning those programs as "subversive" (or words to that effect) would have political repercussions. Banning them in the name of IP law however would work fine - there would be less uproar, and as a bonus, the law would have the support of any media company operating in China. Plus, the government could claim they were complying with western law.
"Censorship? What censorship? We're merely protecting copyright materials. How is that different from what companies in America do?" -- Doesn't that seem a little convienient?
Not saying it will happen, but it's not that far fetched. And the only reason I see for it not happening is the fact that china really doesn't feel the need to justify it's actions internationally, or at least they haven't felt the need yet.
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
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"
Sigh - once again we see the tsunami of uninformed drivel that is provoked every time China is said to have done anything.
- when they were an isolated, communist state, that was SO EVIL!!!!
- so they opened up, introduced market economy and started outcompeting America, and that is SO EVIL!!!
- but they didn't respect copyright, and that was SO EVIL!!!
- so now they introduce laws that protect copyright holders, and that is SO EVIL!!!
Hmmm, do we see a tendency here? It seems that China can do nothing right, no matter what.
Plus all the nonsense about whether they are really communists or not. 'Communism' and 'capitalism' as political and economical systems both have their roots in Victorian England, and just as you wouldn't expect 'capitalism' to stay the same through the > 100 years since then, you can't expect communism to be the same now as it was then. The world changes and our ideas change with it. Or, at least this is what happens outside the USA.
In my opinion what China has now is communism - not quite the thing Karl Marx described, but essentially the same. I personally think it is good, far better than what you have in the US. It is still far from perfect, but it is evolving and improving, which is what USA's system doesn't.
China and the Chinese leaders have shown great courage and made huge progress. In the beginning of the 20th century China was a backward, chaotic country with an absolute monarch, who lived in total isolation from his people. Only 50 years later China was one of the world's superpowers, and in the last ~20 years or so they have evolved from being a closed country that was limping behind socially, economically and politically to being the emerging leader of the world in all areas, whether you or anybody else like it or not. Everybody who knows about these things agree about this, even American economists are in little doubt; it's only a matter of time when America will be relegated to second or third position.
And that, in essence, is why you Americans keep whining about how bad China is; not because you really care one bit about the plight of other people. If you had cared, you wouldn't keep going on about China, but rather talked about the poverty in India, the hunger in Africa etc etc. You don't, however.
Remeber once a law is passed a government can choose how closely it enforces it. You cannot.
You have to follow the law, it doesn't have to uphold it (if it should or not is another issue) A law that can be applied at will can be used to cause trouble for the people you don't like.
"The weirdest thing about a mind, is that every answer that you find, is the basis of a brand new cliche" -
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.
"China has been a Mecca of technology, "
incorrect. They have been the Mecca for production.
"As more smaller bands give up the right to their thoughts, words and hand motions, their fan base grows."
wait until clear channel stations begin playing there music and not paying them.
"When their fan base grows, their shows bring in more money -- much more money"
Not nearly the amount of maney they could make if there music was paying them roalties. Assuming they were popular and good*.
*A good band in the music business is not one that can sell out in New York or L.A., it's one that can sell out in Idaho, Ohio, Brazil.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on