The government has decided to allow private video-sharing
websites to continue operation as long as they do not broadcast
illegal content.
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT)
and the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) said on its website
that all video-sharing websites established before Jan 31 are
qualified for a license and can continue operation.
The license was needed for any website providing online video
services and could have been granted only to State-owned or
State-controlled enterprises, according to an earlier regulation
that took effect on Friday.
"Websites that were established before the regulation took
effect and did not have a bad record (in broadcasting illegal
content) are qualified to continue their business," said SARFT.
But video-sharing websites established after Jan 31 have to be
State-owned enterprises in order to get the license, according to
the regulator.
On Dec 29, SARFT and MII sprang a regulation stating that
websites that provide video programming or allow users to upload
videos in China must obtain a government license and applicants
must either be State-owned or State-controlled companies.
The regulation surprised many as most video-sharing sites in
China are privately held and funded by foreign venture-capital
firms.
The latest announcement thus saves hundreds of private
video-sharing websites from closure or forced cooperation with
State-owned enterprises.
According to experts, China's online video market is dominated
by several big sites, such as Tudou.com, Youku.com and 56.com,
which over the past few years have received hundreds of millions of
dollars from venture capitalist firms encouraged by Google's $1.65
billion acquisition of YouTube in 2006.
But the lack of a mature business model of the sites has forced
many video-sharing websites to tacitly allow individual users to
upload copyrighted films, violent videos or even porn clips in an
effort to increase their viewer numbers, which in turn helps them
get investments from venture capitalists to pay for the rocketing
broadband expenses.
In recent years, the rise of the Internet has made the
government worry about 210 million Chinese Net users, with nearly
20 percent under 18, being exposed to violent and pornographic
content.
But the failure to establish a rating system for the burgeoning
online video websites has made the government's efforts less
effective.
On Jan 3, SARFT posted a notice announcing it had suspended the
screening license of Lost in Beijing, a locally made movie
that contains rape, prostitution and explicit sex scenes.
The film, known as Apple in China, was earlier licensed
after some 20 minutes of footage was deleted. But the producers
distributed the deleted scenes on the Internet, which have become
some of the most popular clips on many video-sharing websites.
(China Daily February 5, 2008)
