[A2k] Recording industry presses Brussels on Chinese piracy problem

[Michelle Childs]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
http://euobserver.com/9/25165/?rk=3D1
Recording industry presses Brussels on Chinese piracy problem
16.11.2007 - 17:41 CET | By Jochen Luypaert
The recording industry has called on the European Commission to do
more on the massive Chinese music piracy problem, two weeks ahead of
the EU-China summit.

On Thursday (15 November), heads of three major record labels (Sony
BMG, EMI and Universal Music Group), a smaller record label
(Dramatico) and the interest group representing the global recording
industry (IFPI) met with trade commissioner Peter Mandelson in Brussels.


The group hoped to persuade the Commission to increase pressure on
China to solve several major problems for the industry during the EU-
China summit in Beijing on 28 November.

The internet piracy problem in China is one of the topics on the
summit's agenda. According to recent estimates, over 99 percent of
the Chinese digital market consists of pirated content.

The efforts of the Chinese government to deal with the problem - such
as the closure of hundreds of download websites - have had little
effect on the problem until now.

Two other issues of importance for the recording industry =96 the
market access restrictions in place and the absence of broadcasting
and public performance rights =96 will also be on the agenda.

The recording industry says that these three problems make it
difficult to build a viable business in China, which explains the
small number of sales revenues for European recording firms =96 only
=8056 million in 2006 for a country with 1.3 billion people.

"When the recording industry tries to defend its copyrights against
online piracy in China, it is blocked by a combination of heavy
procedural rules, woefully low levels of damages and injunctions too
narrow to prevent ongoing infringement," John Kennedy, chairman and
CEO of IFPI said.

"Chinese law has simply not kept pace with the explosion of online
piracy," he added.

=A9 2007 EUobserver, All rights reserved

Michelle Childs
Head of European Affairs
Knowledge Ecology International
michelle.childs@cptech.org