China Issues Cloud Storage Regulations
NCAC, 10/20/15
The National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) recently issued a new regulation entitled "Notice Regarding Online Storage Service Copyright Regulation" which indicates that online storage service companies should take effective measures to prevent users from uploading and sharing unauthorized materials including: works that are currently being broadcast and sold; works issued or banned by organizations for print publications, film, and music; and other works for which distribution is clearly not authorized.
The Notice requires that online storage service companies may not permit or encourage uploads of unauthorized materials, may not catalog, promote, or rank such materials uploaded by users, and may not direct, promote, or encourage users to illegally share others' materials. Online storage service companies should strengthen measures for disciplining users that use other online services to illegally share others' materials.
At the same time, the notice pointed out that online storage service companies should take effective measures to prevent users from illegally uploading, storing, and sharing the following types of materials: materials that have already been deleted by the rights holder; materials regarding which the rights holder has submitted notice of their rights to the online storage service company; and key supervised works identified by national copyright management agencies.
The Notice dictates that online storage service companies should display a notice on their website homepages advising users to respect creators' rights and to refrain from illegally uploading, storing or sharing works. Online storage service companies should display detailed notification and complaint procedures on their websites, handle notices and complaints from rights holders in a timely fashion, and remove links to infringing content within 24 hours after becoming aware of the content through a notice or complaint submitted by a rights holder.
In addition, the Notice also requires that online storage service companies establish necessary management mechanisms and use effective technology measures to actively block and remove infringing works, and to prevent users from uploading, storing, and sharing others' works.
Keywords: Internet regulation personal cloud storage National Copyright Administration IPR infringement
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