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China Moves to Protect On-Line Intellectual Property RightsChina's judicial authorities are taking the initiative in strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) on Chinese websites, the weekend edition of the China Daily reported Sunday."With the fast evolution of China's Internet industry, we should turn to laws and regulations to ensure the healthy development of the industry," the Business Weekly quoted Jiang Zhipei, deputy chief justice of the Intellectual Property Right Chamber of the Supreme People's Court, as saying. Because of the weak awareness of IPR protection in the cyberworld, on-line copyright infringements may become more and more rampant, Jiang said. Last December, two Chinese websites --Beijing MyWeb and Guangzhou Tekson were sued for illegally providing services that enabled its Internet surfers to download International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IEPI) members' music recordings in MP3 format through hyperlinks and search engines. This first lawsuit against on-line music piracy was settled after the two sides reached an agreement which was approved by the Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court. Under the agreement, MyWeb admitted that it has violated the IEPI members' copyrights, paid compensation to the four member companies and eliminated its hyperlinks to unauthorized MP3 files. "The agreement in the case demonstrated increasing awareness of copyright protection for websites," said Wang Yandong, chief representative of the IEPI's Beijing Office. IEPI's case against Tekson, however, has yet to be adjudicated, according to Wang. Analysts believe that the agreement approved by the court indicates that China is on the right track to protect the property rights on websites by intensifying its effort to regulate and standardize the Internet as well as enhancing people's awareness about on-line IPR protection. But the nation's efforts to check cyberworld piracy are far from being satisfactory and more effort is needed to wipe out on-line piracy, Jiang said. Therefore, China should urgently develop laws and regulations protecting IPRs in various areas before it enters the World Trade Organization, he stressed.
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