A Chinese media organization recently made headlines with a public statement aimed at people and groups who have been illegally profiting by reproducing its articles online.
In the statement, the Chongqing Daily News Group wrote that any websites or individuals wishing to reprint copyrighted works, including pictures, online from the group's newspapers for commercial purposes need to acquire prior authorization, except for the uses permitted by law.
The group threatened legal action to protect its intellectual property rights.
An industrial giant in the municipality, the group owns 34 newspapers and news websites, including Chongqing Daily, Chongqing Evening News, Chongqing Business Daily and cqnews.net.
Although such regulations are already recorded in IP-related laws, the illegal reproduction of them is still "rampant" on the Internet, which is bad for the morale of the staff, said Qiu Min, deputy director of the group's legal affairs department, told Chongqing Evening News.
Chen Weideng, a reporter from a local newspaper, said he participated in a series of reports in 2012 and finished eight articles with his colleagues after visiting several mountain communities to conduct interviews.
But, he later found those articles on a commercial website without any indication of the source. "This is infuriating, and I felt that my labor has been stolen," he told the newspaper.
Qiu said these sites are an example of the "free-rider" problem in economics. They draw on the work of others to gain credibility and profit while ignoring the law.
The group has found three kinds of infringement. For example, some booksellers downloaded a series of entrepreneur-themed articles from the official website of Chongqing Morning News and then printed them into a book for sale.
Also, many large commercial websites are increasing their page views and generating ad revenue using the agency's content without compensation or credit. The same situation has also happened in some news apps for smartphones.
The statement puts illegal websites on notice that "we will file lawsuits and ask for compensation if they do not stop the infringement," Qiu said, adding that the group is consulting a professional IP law firm about the issue.
The statement won praise from many journalists and related authorities.
Wang Jing, a senior officer at the city's copyright protection center, said it has reflected the group has "a strong sense of copyright protection" and will also act as "a warning signal to those intended to perform wrongful behaviors".
"The strong attitude shown by the Chongqing Daily News Group to safeguard its rights will help purify the network environment," he said.
But some critics have remarked that it may have "built a prison" for itself, confining its influence to paper media by preventing its material from spreading online.
Qiu responded that the statement does not apply to all kinds of websites. The non-profit institutions, such as the local welfare foundation for disabled people, can reprint related articles on their websites for free.
haonan@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 03/19/2014 page17)
