Forgot password

 

The illegal distribution of contents in China has been a chronic problem for years. Although not as severe, the same problem exists in Korea, where legal measures to protect contents has been implemented. But in China, it is a different story. It seems that no one can stop pirated films. Works with Chinese subtitles appear within one week of their releases on Chinese internet sites. Several years ago, a director called me in the middle of the night and told me, “Illegal distribution make me mad and I check internet sites to see if my film has been released. Is there any solution to this problem?” As his film, which he poured all his money into, was losing its economic value, he may have felt that its pirated version was a lethal weapon. But it is true that the distribution of illegal contents in China had been rampant with no measures up until several years ago.  

 
The Beijing Office of the Korea Copyright Commission (hereafter ‘the Beijing Office’, director: AHN Sung-sup) opened in 2006 with the aim of cutting off distribution lines of pirated Korean contents. The office has made diverse efforts to combat plagiarism and illegal content distribution in China devoid of measures to protect contents. In 2012, with a focus on pirated Korean contents distributed online, the office built an anti-piracy system to take measures via an agreement to monitor contents and build a constant response system in China with the Copyright Protection Center of China or CPCC. The office monitors the distribution of pirated Korean contents exported to China online and takes legal measures for the protection of the contents such as collecting evidence and sending written warnings.

I am running a company in charge of distributing low-budget films in addition to production of Korean films. Recently, our company sold a 16-episode TV miniseries to China in behalf of its producer, called The City of the Sun, which ran on Korean cable TV this year. This drama aired in Korea from January 15 to April 7th. China’s major websites (56.com, ku6.com, tudou.com, youku.com, sina.com.cn and more) already became a hotbed where the drama’s pirated files were downloaded. Although it was late, it was urgently needed to block illegal content downloading before starting a sales pitch.

Our company handed in the consignment sale document, the URL addresses of websites fraught with illegal files, the copyright registration certificate and the business registration certificate of our company among others to the Beijing Office as directed by the office. Less than three days later, we received a notice that the pirated files were all erased.     

 

There are two ways for the office to wipe out illegal online contents. One is monitoring which does not require the extraction of digital DNAs (constant response service), while the other requires the DNA and real-time monitoring of about ten major sites. If copyright to a film or TV drama is sold to a Chinese company before being released or aired, the Chinese company takes charge of protecting or managing the copyright. But if the copyright has not been sold yet and needs protecting and managing in the long term, it is necessary to extract and manage its digital DNA. At this time, the owner of the copyright should keep one thing in mind. The point is that even though they are the same files distributed online, their DNAs extracted in Korea and China are different. Even if their DNAs were extracted in Korea, it should be extracted in China again.  

 

Copyright owners need to know that there are costs associated with DNA extraction and two months of extensive monitoring. For example, a work that is three hours long or less costs its copyright owner CNY 10,000, while CNY 15,000 is charged to works less than 20 hours, like a TV series. The costs are used to send a written warning among others when a pirated file is found. The period is extendable at the owner’s request. In the case of monitoring which does not require the extraction of digital DNAs, costs do not accrue since the owner of a copyright tells the commission the URL addresses. Only and then the committee erases the illegal files after deliberations.   

The Korean Film Council is pushing forward with the protection of copyrights to Korean films and the promotion of lawful overseas contracts in cooperation with the Beijing Office and CPCC. They began to monitor 45 Korean films online, including For the Emperor and Moebius. Through two sessions of monitoring Chinese online platforms in October 2014, 113 illegal files of 32 Korean films were found on websites that encouraged illegal downloads.  

 
In addition, the Korean Film Council is running a consultative body on the protection of copyrights overseas. The organization aims to share cases of overseas violations and the violators with related groups and work in corporation with these organizations in order to create a better environment. In September 2014, the consultative body gathered to review and discussed how to monitor the online distribution of pirated versions of Korean films, while sharing overseas cases of violations, measures to deal with new technology and markets, as well as other issues to cooperate on. The body consists of six Korean film sales companies -- Finecut, CJ E&M, Showbox/Mediaplex, Inc., Lotte Entertainment, M-Line Distribution and United Pictures. 

Although the Beijing Office has been trying to implement a management system for copyright protection by singing an agreement with the CPCC in 2012, but the number of plagiarism in China have been hard to control. In the case of films, a Korean work must pass strict procedures before having its premiere in China (usually for more than a year), where the pirated copies end up hitting the Chinese market in the meantime, weakening the film’s likelihood of making a hit in China. There is a legal way to take the pirates to court, but there is little possibility to win the case.    

Now is time to raise people’s awareness of copyright and call for cooperation between Korea and China. “The Korean government’s instant response system that the commission is building, aims to protect Korean contents. Not only do we need to publicize the system, but copyright owners’ will is very important,” Director AHN of the Beijing Office said. “Reducing the distribution of illegal contents and promoting lawful contents in China are contingent not only on building cooperation between Korea and China but also on a deep understanding of cooperation in the private sector, Chinese society and culture and the Chinese government’s policies.”  

At this time, what efforts should Korean content companies make in order to solve copyright protection problems in China? Most of all, they should build an environment to legally distribute Korean contents by way of reasonable pricing policies and localization by taking local situations into account.