intellectual property

‘Intellectual property’ or IP (zhishi chanquan) is central to the development of China’s cultural and media industries. Existing widespread IP non-compliance can be attributed to a number of factors. First, the legacy of a Confucian tradition that viewed imitation as flattery meant that ideas were to be shared. Second, the nationalization of creative workers as ‘engineers of the soul’ meant that privately owned monopolies or exclusive rights were deemed bourgeois. Third, the sheer scale of China’s population has made effective intellectual property rights (IPR) education difficult. It has therefore been difficult for the Chinese government to change public perceptions and to monitor the illegal pirating of cultural works, particularly in south China.

Indeed, the popularity of pirated versions of software, including CDs and VCDs, has substantially reduced the price of licensed software.

The Chinese government has regularly made a show of appropriating and destroying illegal material primarily to satisfy the demands of foreign investors and governments. In fact, it was only in the wake of the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in 1994 and China’s moves to secure WTO membership (see World Trade Organization (WTO) debate) that the issues of rights came to national policy attention. The control of print products—and CDs and DVDs—is now increasingly monitored under a new intellectual property regime. Further, the notion of copyright (banquan) is considered central to the multiple rights distribution of film and television products, superseding the dominant system that saw broadcasters such as CCTV (Chinese Central Television) holding exclusive rights, with smaller stations bartering ‘programme packages’ amongst themselves.

Further reading

http://www.ncac.gov.cn/

http://www.ncac.gov.cn/cn/fagui/newcopyrightlaw.htm

Feng, P. (1997). Intellectual Property in China. Hong Kong: Sweet and Maxwell.

MICHAEL KEANE