Copyright protection is crucial to the prosperity of film industry

The Film Industry Promotion Laws (Draft for Comment) has entered the stage of approval by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. In the revised draft for comment, in addition to the protection of film industry-related intellectual property, it also provides that transferring film copyrights can enjoy tax preference and film copyrights can be pledged, which means copyright protection and film industry development have formed a positive cycle.

The soul of industry development

"From an industry perspective, mature and complete film industry is not only a cinema market, but also a market of videotape copyright, DVD copyright, TV copyright and online copyright sales, image product development and copyright transfer. Ticket sales only account for about 30% of the revenues reaped from a successful film. Instead, profits generated from copyright licensing take up a large part. For example, the licensing of Bumblebee from Transformers and the production and sales of other related products brought investors more profits. In such an industry chain, copyright is the soul. If a movie was pirated before it hit theaters, it would not only have a negative impact on ticket sales but also on related industry chains," said Han Kaichen, producer and director of Death Dowry, in an interview with China Intellectual Property News.

Although China's film industry is at the initial stage of development, the advancing trend is widely recognized.

Revaluation of copyright value

"The Film Industry Promotion Law highlights IPR protection. Exploring financing channels in pledge of film copyrights is a way to promote the development of this industry," said Han.

Contrary to the lagging legislation, China saw the first copyright - collateralized contract as early as five years ago. Later, the partnership of film and video industries with financial institutions resulted in various copyright-pledged models of distinctive features. The Flowers of War secured a loan of 150 million yuan from Minsheng Bank. The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate was supported by Bank of Beijing with a "package loan". Hollywood also adopts the copyright-collateralized model to finance, just in different ways.

Legislation is just a means of promotion and encouragement. The development of film industry is more dependent on market demand. The General Bureau of Radio, Film and Television released the ticket sales of Chinese films in 2011--13,115 million yuan. It is predicated that in the coming 3 to 5 years China's film industry will fully usher in a capital era. [Chinese version is available on China Intellectual Property News]