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by CIO Staff

China Boosts Web Copyright Protections

News
May 30, 2006 1 min
Government

The Government of China has passed a regulation to bar the uploading and downloading of copyrighted materials via the Internet without the expressed permission of the appropriate copyright holder(s), the Xinhua News Agency reports.

The new regulation will be effective on July 1, and it will ban any person from uploading or downloading Internet content, like music, films and video games, for personal or commercial usage, without the copyright owner’s OK, Xinhua reports.

The regulation also makes it illegal to manufacture, import and distribute products that can sidestep, or override, copyright-protection technologies, according to Xinhua.

The government passed the policy to better address the rights and needs of copyright owners, ISPs and Web surfers, Xinhua reports, and it comes at a time when software and DVD piracy, among other forms, are threatening relations between the United States and China.

For related content, read Study: Software Piracy Rate Remains the Same in ’05.

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