Copyright violators to be placed on blacklist

Blacklists naming websites, mobile apps and other platforms that violate copyrights will be created as part of the latest campaign to tackle copyright infringement, China's top copyright watchdog said on Tuesday. 

"This year's campaign will include blacklists and whitelists to indicate the level of copyright protection of commercial websites, Internet literature websites and apps. The whitelist will highlight good examples, and the blacklist will warn of infringement behaviors," said Yu Cike, director of the copyright management department at the National Copyright Administration. 

The administration will continue to combat piracy in cloud storage services, which have provided internet users with a covert channel for illegal downloads of movies and TV series. 

The annual campaign to combat online copyright infringement started in 2010 and targets infringements in music, movies, literature, games, e-commerce and software. 

"Copyright protection on the internet has improved greatly since the campaign began," said Zhang Wei, an internet writer known as Tang Jia San Shao. 

"A decade ago, pirated copies of one of my works numbered about 20. But when I searched the title of my book, there were thousands of search results," Zhang said. "I wonder how many of the websites paid me intellectual property fees." 

He hopes the authorities will continue to crack down on copyright infringement. 

According to the administration, 4,263 TV series and movies played at 16 online video websites in 2015 needed copyright authorization from the administration. Most submitted authorization requests and were approved. But 35 percent - up to 1,506 shows - were not authorized.