From December 5 to December 7 in 2016, the sixth International Copyright Expo was held in Guangzhou, China. This expo aims to show the achievements, to promote the protection of copyright and to guide industrial development. WIPO, National Copyright Administration and IP protection organizations from UK and some other countries attended this expo. – A guest post from Kevin Gao.

The expo began with an awards ceremony. A number of individuals and groups won the country’s highest level copyright golden awards. Their works include the famous internet novel Nirvana in Fire, The English-Chinese Dictionary and the Chinese film Wolf Totem.

In this expo, people could experience a considerable variety of traditional Chinese art works and new technologies as well as digital devices from blue-and-white porcelains, sculptures, paintings, handwritings, Chinese paper cutting to robots, VR, 3D printings and the products from Tencent and other internet companies.

Exhibitors from UK exhibited the posters, music, novels, CDs of TV series such as Sherlock, Mini Cooper and their derivative products like cartoons and characters, etc. Companies from South Korean, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan also displayed their advanced products. All these different kinds of items were shown in order to raise people’s awareness of copyright protection. Many oversea exhibitors considered this expo as a window for other countries’ people to know more about copyright protection in China and a platform for international protection of copyright in the internet era.

Source: Chen Hui / China Daily

China has made a progress in copyright protection during the last few years. The data from the national copyright administration shows that the copyright industry accounts for over 7.28% of the country’s GDP in 2014, and it is higher this year. China has cracked down on online music piracy. It is really good news for musical sector to be able to find the road of success not just for musicians, but for all the people in the music industry, from the author to the producer. They are extremely happy to know that their music will be rewarded. Besides, China also tackled with piracy TV series and prohibited the transmission of literary works via the internet without permissions.

Next, China aims to make great efforts to tackle internet piracy especially in the industries of movies, animations, online games and instant messaging. It’s true that copyright protection of content industry is increasingly significant. Online copyright infringement has already arrived at an era where the detached webpages, players and cloud storage services can be combined to infringe other’s copyright, like deep links. The wide range and rapid spread of infringement, and the difficulties in collecting evidence cause it hard to protect copyright on the internet. China declares that it will integrate administrative protection, judicial proceedings, industry self-regulations and enterprise’s asserting rights to protect copyright better.

For more on the China International Copyright Expo 2016 visit CCTV’s English website.

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Kevin Gao, also known as Gao Mengyu, is doing his master in IP Law at Southwest University of Political Science and Law in Chongqing, China. He focuses on copyright law especially the protection of online games.