File-sharing websites shut down

• Source: Global Times
• [03:27 December 08 2009]
• Comments

Legalization steps

Under copyright and policy pressure, video websites are also seeking to standardize operations by offering increasingly more authorized copyright content and shifting their operation models.

On December 2, PPLive, another video-sharing website, wooed a 100 million yuan fund from the Shanghai municipal government, becoming the first government-financed website.

Some video-sharing sites have worked to collaborate with the country's official film distributor in an effort to fend off copyright infringements.

In October, Tudou.com, another leading Internet video website, announced that it would partner with China Film Group Corporation and China Mobile to tap into the mobile video industry and charge viewers for videos.

Xiong Ying, an associate professor of law at Beijing Administrative College, told the CBN that the rampant occurrence of copyright violations stemmed from the low cost needed to operate websites that share pirated content, the high cost of protecting copyrights, difficult law enforcement and low awareness of copyright protection.

But Pu Zhiqiang, a patent lawyer in Beijing, said the copyright issue could be well addressed as long as Chinese Web users have access to affordable and authentic resources.

Guo Qiang and Liang Chen contributed to the story