Copyright protection extended to Internet in China.

Abuse of intellectual property - piracy, theft, call it what you will - is a fundamental business challenge for all media companies doing business in China. The Hong Kong Trade Development Council reports on its web site that 30th May say the implementation of new administrative measures to protect IP on the Internet in the mainland.

The new regulations won't stop the pirates. You can be sure of that. It will, though, give copyright owners at least some basis on which to go after the more egregious abusers if they want to. The TDC article does, though, raise somew questions about just how vigorous the authorities will be in applying the new regulations:

The measures clearly spell out the administrative and legal responsibilities of Internet service providers in relation to copyright. Since Internet service providers have difficulty verifying everything provided by the Internet content providers, they should not be made to bear too heavy a legal responsibility for Internet copyright infringements.