[x-pubpol] China trains its cannons on digital pirates

[Joly MacFie]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/05/china_four_month_digital_piracy_crackdown/

The Chinese government has announced a tough four month crackdown targeting
online piracy in the country, just as European netizens celebrate their
Parliament’s rejection <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/04/acta_rip/> of
the controversial ACTA treaty.

A typically lengthy
statement<http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://www.ncac.gov.cn/cms/html/309/3502/201207/759378.html&usg=ALkJrhgW6UHKeQerzOjiqw9luwg6kxo_Ag>
indicated
four government departments would be involved in the action plan – the
National Copyright Administration, the Ministry of Public Security, the
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Internet
Information Office.

It calls on “local copyright administrations” to step up policing efforts
of potentially infringing sites and those who upload links to pirated
content, and there are proposals to supervise legitimate e-commerce
platforms more tightly.

The government missive also mentions increasing criminal penalties for
online piracy, and urges police to step up their investigations, with sites
found guilty also facing closure and having their licenses revoked.

The government also wants all internet stakeholders to turn informant,
pointing the public to anti-piracy telephone hotlines and reminding service
providers of their obligations to police content.
<snip>

However, critics have argued China’s various online piracy initiatives are
often little more than a front for yet more government-mandated web
censorship.
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