Ministry of Culture mulls on-line music bank for IPR protection
The program is carried out by the Culture Market Development Center, a division of the Ministry of Culture. It is aimed at protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the copyright owners of musical content.
According to an unnamed source close to the program, the system will serve as a multi-purpose information platform on which authorized music content will be allowed into the bank and the system can log the times a certain song is played at a karaoke, or KTV, parlor. The data collected will be used for figuring out fees payable to intellectual property right owners.
This move is the result of escalating conflicts between the music industry, copyright owners and karaoke operators. The ministry hopes the system under construction will not only serve as an administrative tool to manage the use of online musical content, but also create a level playing field for both copyright owners and music content users.
According to Liang Gang, the chief of the Culture Market Development Center, creating such a system will also help prevent the spread of unhealthy or obscene music in recreational places.
Thanks to a censorship mechanism to be employed on the platform being built, all musical content to be uploaded to the music bank will be scrutinized in line with applicable standards and related laws and regulations. The property rights statement of the music uploaded to the bank must be clear and free of ambiguity, with the uploading method to be consistent with related criteria. The ministry didn't specify what criteria will apply.
So far, the entertainment industry has been allowed to participate in the program on a voluntary basis free of charge.
A trial operation of the system will be carried out soon in Wuhan, Zhengzhou and Qingdao. It will be promoted across the country if the trial operation is successful.
(China View 07/26/2006)
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