SARFT to Establish Copyright Watchdog

21st Century Business Herald, 11/11/09

The State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT) plans to establish an organization to supervise the new media industry, with a particular focus on evaluating new media content "transaction prices" and the "tort value" in copyright infringement cases.

At the beginning of November, SARFT's legal department sent a task force to China Central Television (CCTV)'s online CCTV Network, Shanghai Media Group subsidiary SMG Broadband Broadcasting (SMGBB), and online video websites PPLive and PPStream, to conduct surveys with the goal of "standardizing new media licensing transactions." The task force's survey has already been completed, and the results are now being readied for publication. Among the task force's recommendations is that SARFT establish an organization to manage licensing transactions, and that it research and develop software to manage such transactions and sell the software to new media companies.

SARFT officials have said that the survey is still ongoing, and that no confirmed results are available for publication.

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