Late last year I attended the Dong Dong Music Convention in Beijing. Anybody interested in the music business in China should think about attending the Convention or at least the related Festival. Ed Peto of Outdustry invited me to a great panel he was moderating called What’s New in the Field of IPR in China. One of the panelists was Guo Biao of IFPI China. Just in case, IFPI is short for “International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.”
There has been a lot of talk lately about proposed changes to China’s copyright law and the Dong Dong panel piqued my interest in the issues confronted here by the music industry. A few weeks later I sat down with Ed and Biao to discuss some of the points they raised during their panel.
Biao kindly provided the fourth draft of the new Copyright Law of China as drafted by the National Copyright Administration of China, known as the “NCAC.” When settled, the NCAC draft will go to the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, which will prepare its own draft for submission to the National People’s Congress. Along the way, the debate among stakeholders has been fierce. Chinese television broadcasters, in particular, do not want to see changes proposed by the music industry because those changes would require payment of royalties.
In my next post I will look at some of the terminology used in the Copyright Law of China as it applies to music, especially the terminology attracting so much heat in the stakeholders’ debate. In the meantime, here is a good overview of copyright in China.