The National Copyright Administration (NCA) will soon implement a regulation on administrative protection of materials appearing on the Internet to help prevent piracy.

The regulation, drafted by the NCA and the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), is intended to bring China's copyright protection in line with international standards, said NCA spokesman Wang Ziqiang at a Thursday meeting.

China amended its Copyright Law in 2001 to add provisions that gave dissemination rights of materials on Internet-based networks to authors, performers and audio and video producers. The law indicates that the State Council will provide more specific information on these rights and their protection. The Legislative Affairs Office under the State Council has this item listed on its legislative plan for next year, according to Wang.

"This draft regulation will go into effect before the end of this year to help prevent piracy before the State Council's legislation is completed," said Wang.

The regulation provides administrative protection of dissemination rights to materials on the Internet, including functions such as loading, saving, transmitting, linking and searching.

In 1996, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) promulgated two conventions based on new technology development: the WIPO Copyright Treaty and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. These treaties address copyrights held by authors, performers and audio and video producers on Internet-based materials.

The regulation recently drafted is based on the two WIPO treaties and similar laws in a number of developed countries.

Yesterday's meeting attracted dozens of representatives from government and private industry, as well as several website operators. They offered their opinions and suggestions for implementing the regulation.

Kuang Ning, of the Shanghai Securities Exchange, said the regulation should also include protection of Internet-based securities information, as the dissemination of false information has damaged good order in securities exchange in recent years.

(China Daily November 5, 2004)