The new pirates

When singer Zhou Bichang topped the pop charts with her Liuyang River 2008, an R&B rendition of the folk song Liuyang River, she never expected the original composer and lyrics writer would one day sue her.

Yet she is not alone. With the rapid development of the entertainment and IT industries, copyright lawsuits have outnumbered trademark and patent cases in China over the past three years.

Courts at all levels heard 5,719 civil copyright infringement cases over that period, while the number for patent disputes was 3,196 and trademark cases totaled 2,521, says Yu Xiaobai, judge of the intellectual property rights (IPR) division of the Supreme People's Court, during the recent 2007 International Copyright Trade Development Forum.



Such cases are clustered in economically developed areas, with Beijing, Shanghai municipalities, Guangdong, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces accounting for 67.27 percent of the total, she says.

Growth in the number of copyright cases involving overseas individuals and companies is part of the trend, with 66 cases last year, double the total of 2005. There were 106 copyright cases involving residents from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan last year, up by 18.87 percent.

The lawsuits largely come as a result of disputes over computer software, books, music, movies and TV programs.

In August Beida Founder Electronic Co Ltd instituted proceedings before the Beijing Higher People's Court against the United States company Blizzard Entertainment for copyright infringement and asked for compensation of 100 million yuan.

Founder developed and copyrighted its Founder fonts for Chinese characters, and alleges the online game World of Warcraft developed by Blizzard Entertainment used five of its fonts without authorization. Founder estimated that such infringement caused a loss of 1 billion yuan.

Yu points out that criminal copyright cases are also increasing. In 2005 and 2006, 41 cases were heard, the same number for the four years from 2001 to 2004.

With the development of new media and new technology, Yu notes there are also new types of copyright abuses, including those in online music, movie downloads, peer-to-peer file sharing and digital libraries.

In one case, a Chinese music website filed suit against Baidu.com, demanding suspension of its service that allows access to free music owned by the plaintiff and sought 100 million yuan in compensation.

The website 5fad.com said Baidu, one of China's largest Internet search engines, posted links to websites offering free playing and downloading of more than 1,000 pieces of its copyrighted music through a so-called deep link function.

Wu Duanping, president of Zhejiang Fanya E-commerce Co Ltd, which owns 5fad.com, says his company suffered financial losses as a result of Baidu's downloading service. He said the company sent dozens of formal notices to Baidu asking it to suspend the service, but Baidu failed to respond.

Beijing High People's Court has accepted the case.

The dispute comes after a group of international music companies lost a lawsuit against Baidu last year over similar copyright infringement allegations.

EMI, Sony BMG, Warner Music and Universal Music accused Baidu of providing illegal downloading and playing of music owned by them without their permission, demanding suspension of its download service and asked for 1.73 million yuan in compensation.

But a Beijing intermediate court ruled in favor of Baidu, saying the service did not constitute infringement as all the music was from third-party websites.

The Internet is timely, rapid, direct and interactive, all of which reflect characteristics of the new economy.

When discussing online copyright infringement, people usually talk about illegal downloads of music or movies. But with the development of online bulletin board services and blogs, infringement is expanding to quoting from written material without authorization, with resulting conflicts also increasing.

To keep pace, the National Copyright Administration recently began to offer rewards for information on piracy.

An organization or individual that provides information leading to prosecution can receive a reward of up to 100,000 yuan, but the amount could be even higher if an informant makes crucial contributions to a case with national significance or involving an unusually large sum of money, according to a Xinhua News Agency report.

The administration has established a processing center for tips with a hot line - 12390 - and the email address jubao@ncac.gov.cn.