Tudou.com is growing in terms of wealth, daily users, viewers, and perhaps most notably, copyright infringement charges. To date, Tudou has given China the biggest dose of its own medicine. The continual controversy over the piracy of American media, such as film, music, and television shows has been debated and addressed legally. With the introduction of video sharing websites like Tudou that cater to the Chinese Internet audiences in terms of language, product advertisements, and graphics, Chinese media has also become a target for online media piracy. According to Chinatechnews.com "about 80 Chinese copyright owners, including Joy.cn, Beijing Polybona Film Distribution, Beijing Orange Sky Entertainment Group and SFS Emperor, are planning a massive legal assault against...Tudou.com for various copyright infringements." While some of these cases, such as Joy.cn vs. Tudou.com and NuCom online vs. Tudou.com, have been either settled outside of court or with Tudou paying a fine to appease the courts and all parties involved, the piracy problem still persists.
It seems that the illegal distribution of Chinese media on video sharing websites is a rather new phenomenon for the fact that: the demand for Chinese media has probably become more pronounced with the increasing popularity of Internet use and video sharing websites amongst Chinese citizens. Although, the bootlegging of Chinese films, music, and television shows existed before the introduction of websites like Tudou.com and Youku.com, it has become more readily available to Chinese and American Internet users alike for free. What makes this situation unique from American media bootlegging and piracy is that Chinese media that is spoken in the Chinese language and focused around Chinese cultural norms is more understood, desired and purchased by Chinese consumers than by any other market. Therefore the Chinese media market has more to loose than a more international and English speaking market such as the United States because Chinese media is less likely to find outlets, demand, and revenue in other markets outside of China. It will be interesting to observe how the conservative Chinese government handles this new type of online media that has potential to affect their entertainment industry; the U.S might just benefit from this new potential "threat." And next time we'll take a look at how Tudou.com's addition of advertisements and content censoring department are making the website more profitable and effective.
Also, take a look at the official Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China and note discrepancies that contradict the current bootlegging and piracy issues in China...hmmmmm
Your blog is very interesting. Every time I read one of your posts, I can't get over the fact how much control the Chinese government has. Why would they limit the spread of videos online though, if it's only meant to circulate among a Chinese audience (for the most part)? Wouldn't that generate commercial interest and incentive to buy the entertainment products...or maybe if it were free they'd never buy?
ReplyDeleteYes, I believe that the problem comes into play similarly to the U.S. While one could argue that free circulation of films, music, and t.v shows are beneficial because they promote them, they still present a financial burden, decreasing the amount of money consumers spend on entertainment, thus decreasing money in the pockets of producers, studios, actors/actresses. It's also interesting to think about how these video sharing websites affect the black market bootleggers because people (Chinese and American alike) are able to watch more movies, t.v shows, etc online instead of having to purchase them on the street somewhere for some "bargainable" amount of money...
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