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V.
Intellectual Property Rights Protection for Audio and Video Products
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Persistent piracy of audio and video products in spite of repeated bans is a problem of international significance. The Chinese government attaches great importance to IPR protection for audio and video products, treats crackdown on piracy of audio and video products as an important task in IPR protection and has made continuous efforts to carry it out. In recent years, China has gradually established a whole set of systems for the management of audio and video products, which mainly includes an IPR protection system, audio and video business license system, exclusive publication right system, duplication authorization system, SID code system, censorship system for imported audio and video products, the system of awards for informants, the system of uniform anti-counterfeit labels for audio and video products, the system of registration and filing of audio and video products in storehouses, and the system of inspection of, report on and keeping the public informed of illegal audio and video products. In August 1994, the government promulgated the "Regulations on the Administration of Audio and Video Products," and amended it in December 2001. In accordance with the relevant laws and regulations, including the "General Principles of the Civil Law," "Copyright Law," "Criminal Law" and "Regulations on the Administration of Audio and Video Products," the Press and Publication General Administration, Ministry of Culture, General Administration of Customs and Ministry of Commerce respectively and jointly issued a series of administrative regulations, such as the "Regulations on the Administration of Publication of Audio and Video Products," "Measures for the Administration of Wholesale, Retail and Renting of Audio and Video Products," "Measures for the Administration of Import of Audio and Video Products" and "Measures for the Administration of China-Foreign Cooperative Distribution Enterprises of Audio-video Products," providing both legal and administrative groundwork for the business and protection of audio and video products. In light of the rapidly developing audio-video market, the government has step by step readjusted its administration of the audio-video industry. The "Regulations on the Administration of Audio and Video Products" provides for the division of functions in the administration of the industry. In 1998, the State Council further sorted out the administrative system on the principle of "streamlining, efficiency and unification," clearly assigning the administration of audio-video products' production, publication and duplication to the Press and Publication General Administration; and that of wholesale, retail, renting, showing and import of audio-video products to the Ministry of Culture. Following the suit of the central government, the local governments have also readjusted their administrative systems in this regard. So far, China has initially established market management networks at the central, provincial, prefectural and county levels. In most areas, investigation squads have been set up to keep watch on cultural markets, including the market for audio and video products. They sincerely perform the duties of supervision and administration on the audio-video market. Since the 1990s, the publication market supervision authorities and cultural administration authorities have cooperated closely with other relevant departments in making sustained efforts to enforce order in the audio-video market. As a result, the order of the audio-video market has been gradually improved, the number of pirated audio-video products clearly reduced, and the circulation of original copies greatly increased. According to incomplete statistics, from 1994 to 2004, nine CD duplicating enterprises had their duplication business licenses revoked, and 200 illegal CD production lines were discovered. In August 2004, under the unified arrangement of the special IPR protection campaign, the Ministry of Culture drew up an overall plan for an intensive crackdown on infringements in the audio-video industry, in accordance with which it guided and coordinated with key cities and areas in strengthening law enforcement, and discovering and closing down a large number of underground storehouses and distribution networks of illegal audio-video products. In 2004, cultural market inspecting and management authorities throughout the country inspected audio-video businesses on 555,368 occasions, confiscating 154 million copies of audio-video works. On January 12, 2005, the Ministry of Culture and the Office of the National Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights Protection launched a nationwide campaign to destroy illegal audio-video products, during which over 63.35 million copies of such products were destroyed.
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