Online copyright is now protected in China as per an administrative rule which took effect on May 30, 2005, the China Daily reported.
The regulation was jointly created by the National Copyright Administration (NCA) and the Ministry of Information Industry in China.
The rule applies to services including uploading, storing, connecting, or searching online literary, audio, and video products, in accordance with the instructions of the Internet content provider, without any content revision.
Under the rule, when copyright owners notify the Internet Service Provider (ISP) that their copyrights have been violated, the provider should take measures to remove relevant copied content.
ISPs that know about copyright violations but don’t remove the violating content will face punishment themselves. All income from the illegal act will be confiscated, and a fine of up to three times the illegal income will be assessed. If the illegal income proves difficult to calculate, the maximum fine will be 100,000 yuan ($12,000).