SARFT to establish copyright watchdog
November 13, 2009
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) plans to establish an organisation to supervise the new media industry, with a particular focus on evaluating new media content “transaction prices” and the “tort value” in copyright infringement cases.
At the beginning of November, SARFT’s legal department sent a task force to China Central Television (CCTV)’s online CCTV Network, Shanghai Media Group subsidiary SMG Broadband Broadcasting (SMGBB), and online video websites PPLive and PPStream, to conduct surveys with the goal of “standardising new media licensing transactions.” The task force’s survey has already been completed, and the results are now being readied for publication. Among the task force’s recommendations is that SARFT establish an organisation to manage licensing transactions, and that it research and develop software to manage such transactions and sell the software to new media companies.