NCA official answers questions from public online

Editor's note: On April 28, Chinese popular social media platform Sina Weibo hosted an online question and answer session with Yu Cike, director of the copyright management department of the National Copyright Administration, with the theme of "Protecting copyright and encouraging originality". The director answered more than 20 questions from Weibo users in an hour and half. The topic drew more than 1,000 comments that day. Below is some of the conversation.

How much does copyright contribute to the national economy?

According to The Economic Contribution of Copyright Industries in China 2014, a report released on April 26, China's copyright industries contributed 7.28 percent of the nation's GDP that year. The proportion was 6.39 percent in 2006. The value generated by the business increased nearly 3.3 trillion yuan ($509.8 billion) over the period, an average annual growth of 17 percent.

Will online copyright supervision be expanded?

The internet is a major field of copyright supervision. We will never stop our efforts to clean up the online copyright environment and will continue the Jianwang Operation, an annual campaign against online piracy since 2005.

We will pay increased attention to some of the key areas, including online literature, music, videos, games and animation.

This year, we will expand our range of supervision to some new areas such as mobile device apps, cloud storage, online shopping platforms and social media.

An open letter was published on April 26 by dozens of "we media" - online writers and publishers of unofficial online accounts - protesting unauthorized use of their original works. What is the NCA comment on this?

Unauthorized online reprinting has always been a focus of the NCA. The regulation of online reprinting was listed as an important task in the 2014 Jianwang Operation, during which we fought against unauthorized use of other people's works online, and also sought mechanisms for paid use.

The online reprinting environment has been improving, but the internet has brought challenges regarding copyright protection to not only the media, but also the administration, as it contains massive information and involves many rights owners.

This year, the NCA will continue its efforts in the field with increased punishments for illegal online reprinting.

It will also encourage copyright cooperation between the press and the internet-based media.

What programs will the government have this year for copyright protection? What areas will they involve?

The NCA organized various promotional campaigns during IP Week from April 20. In addition, it uses new media platforms, such as Sina Weibo and WeChat, to promote copyright.

According to the requirements of the State Council on strict IP rights protection, the NCA will fight harder against piracy this year, both online and offline.

Targeting online piracy, the NCA will cooperate with three other authorities to launch the 12th Jianwang Operation, with focuses including large-scale infringements using mobile device apps, e-commerce platforms and cheating software and private servers for online games.