[Random-bits] Chinese government and the Internet

[James Love]

/A few intereseting stories from this newsletter:
 
 CHINA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LAW NEWSLETTER 
   Vol. 1, No. 11 - September 11, 2000 
                
Chinese President Calls for International Treaty to Police Web 

Speaking at the opening of the 16th World Computer Congress on 21
August, Chinese President Jiang Zemin called for an international treaty
designed to police the World Wide Web. "The fast-paced development of
the Internet has played an important role in the world's economic growth
and strengthened exchanges between peoples of all nations. But we must
see that on the Internet there exists an overflow of trash information
that is anti-scientific, sham science, unhealthy and even harmful,"
Jiang
said.

Without offering further details, Jiang called for an international
agreement to "strengthen the administration of healthy information"
available on the Web.  Such statements are consistent with the Communist
Party? policy of supporting the growth of the Internet while attempting
to block sites that contradict its own political views. (Source: Agence
France Presse)

--------------------------------

Chinese Police Seize Book on Internet Erotica

Chinese police have for the first time confiscated certain volumes of
"Special Websites," a book specializing in listing erotic websites, the
Ministry of Public Security disclosed today.  The 191-page book contains
more than 400 erotic websites in 24 categories, with detailed captions
and pornographic pictures attached to each website.  The book was
recently found on sale in some bookstores in Kunming and Dali, two
cities in Yunnan Province, southwest China, the ministry said. Cracking
down on the publication and trading of pornographic books is one of the
targets of the ongoing nationwide campaign against prostitution,
gambling, and narcotics trade, which was kicked off on the 1st of July
this year. (Source: Xinhua News Agency)
                  
                                                                  
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Hong Kong Customs Smashes First Illegal Website

The Hong Kong Customs officers of the Anti-Internet Piracy Task Force
have smashed an illegal website for downloading MP3, RealAudio Clip
musical files, and MTV of Dat format. "This is the first case [in which]
Customs detected an illegal website for downloading pirated music since
the establishment of the Anti- Internet Piracy Task Force at the end of
last year," said a spokesman for the Customs and Excise Department. He
appealed to the public not to provide any pirated files for downloading
in their websites, a possible criminal offense under the Copyright
Ordinance. Acting on information provided by the International
Federation of Photographic Industry and follow-up investigation by
Customs officers, the officers seized a computer server and two
computers from three premises, totally worth about 40,000 HK dollars. In
the operation, the officers arrested three men, aged between 19 and 23.
"The three arrested men made use of a hyperlink to place 68 pieces of
music and MTV at seven servers, two in Hong Kong and five in overseas,"
the spokesman said. According to the Copyright Ordinance, anyone found
distributing infringed copies without the license of the copyright
owner, other than for the purpose of trade or business, to such an
extent as to affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright, is liable
to prosecution. The maximum penalty for the offense is a fine of 50,000
HK dollars per disc plus four years' imprisonment. "We shall continue
conducting vigorous enforcement action against piracy activities in an
effort to protect the intellectual property rights here in Hong Kong,"
the spokesman stressed.
                 (Source: Xinhua News Agency)
                  
-- 
James Love  mailto:love@cptech.org http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology, P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
voice 1.202.387.8030  fax  1.202.234.5176