international Herald Tribune: “China Suit In China Called Opening Salvo In Media War”
“A lawsuit that has been filed by one of China’s largest newspapers against one of the country’s leading Internet portals over the issue of massive copyright violations is being described here as the opening salvo in a media war.
In the suit, which was filed in October and is expected to go to court soon, The Beijing News is seeking $400,000 in damages from a popular Internet site called Tom.com for having copied and republished more than 25,000 articles and photographs without authorization since 2003.
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Very gradually, an awareness also seems to be taking hold that China’s companies must build strong brands of their own to be successful, and that this cannot be accomplished in an environment where copying goes unpunished.
“To enhance the country’s development we are trying to encourage innovation,” said Xu Chao, vice director of the National Copyright Bureau.
“We are placing more emphasis on intellectual property and have made improvements in the law. It used to be possible for traditional media or Internet media to simply copy each other’s work, but now this has been forbidden.”