Vol.3, No.12

CHINA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LAW NEWSLETTER

Vol. 3, No.12 - September 16, 2002

TOPICS THIS ISSUE:

• RIAA Chases Free-Music Off The Net
• China Faced With Continuing Pressure For Internet Reform
• Goals Set For Information Over Next Five Years
• Chinese Government Denied Knowledge Why Google Search Engine Is Blocked In China
• Media Freedom Group Protests At China's Google Block
• Two High - Tech Zones Decided To Cooperate

RIAA Chases Free-Music Off The Net

Listen4Ever, the free music web site, was recently taken offline in the US following pressure from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on Internet service providers. The China based site offered several thousand tracks from major-label artists for free downloading.

The RIAA said that it was withdrawing a planned lawsuit. The trade organization said it was seeking assistance from four ISPs in cutting off access to the site. The RIAA suggested that Listen4Ever's setting up in China was a crass attempt to flout the US copyright laws. RIAA officials claimed that it was offering "a treasure trove of mostly American music for free" and the fact that it went to such great lengths to conceal its origins demonstrates its awareness that this is an illegal activity.

China, and other parts of the developing world have long been regarded as places where there has been rampant music piracy. Illegal goods in these parts, is currently estimated to be as much as two-thirds of the overall market.

The RIAA has been working in unison with its London-based sister organization, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, to prepare a lawsuit against Listen4Ever. In a separate but related case the RIAA recently asked a Washington D.C. federal court to compel Verizon, the high-speed Internet provider to turn over the name of one of its most prolific online file-sharing users.

This move by the RIAA represents a change in policy regarding whom they target. Until recently they preferred to go after the peer-to-peer companies themselves, fearing a backlash if they targeted individual users. An RIAA representative, however, declined to comment on whether the RIAA would actually file a lawsuit against the user if he were found.

(Source: Daily Variety)

China Faced With Continuing Pressure For Internet Reform

China, recently, announced that there are now approximately 45.8 million 'netizens', a significant increase on the two million Chinese that had internet access three years ago. It is estimated that if this rate of growth continues then in five years time there will be nearly six hundred million Chinese citizens online, approximately half the total population.

This news, however, was greeted with skepticism by those aware of the "Great Firewall". This is the system, put in place by the country's leaders, to control what information can be viewed and distributed within China.

The "Great Firewall" has been built from 1995 and consists of over 60 laws governing internet activities, more than 30,000 state security employees conducting surveillance of Web sites, chat rooms and private e-mail messages. In addition to this thousands of Internet caf¨¦s have been closed in recent months, and those remaining have been forced to install "Internet Police 110" software, which filters out more than 500, 000 banned sites with pornographic or so-called subversive content.

The number of Internet related arrests have risen steeply recently. In 2001 eight people were arrested on subversion charges for publishing and distributing information online. In 2002 the most high profile, related, case was in Tianshi City, Gansu Province where a former police officer was sentenced by a court to 11 years in prison for downloading and printing 500 "reactionary" articles from the Internet.

These cases have, so far, been reactionary, the Great Firewall was introduced as a preventative measure for the government. Having realized that censoring the millions of Web sites now online is a behemoth task, the government has compelled private Internet service providers, Web publishers and Internet cafe owners to do the job for them and therefore controlling tens of thousands of individual Web sites, publishing increasingly independent and diverse viewpoints. In response, Chinese Internet users have launched new protests against state censorship of the Web. At the fore of this movement is the widely circulated Declaration of Internet Citizens' Rights, which demands free expression and freedom of information and association on the Internet.

The declaration's authors challenge the constitutionality of the new regulations and defend their rights to publish online by quoting the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights. The Internet declaration then states: "A modern society is an open society. As the Chinese people again face a historic transition into a modern society ... any measure that closes China only harms China's emergence into the international community and Chinese society's peace and progress.... Defending Internet freedom is an urgent matter." Initiated by 18 prominent writers, lawyers and private Web masters, the declaration immediately gained the support of more than 600 Web publishers, Internet users and other Chinese "netizens."

Since March, more than 300 businesses, government offices, universities and other organizations have signed the Public Pledge on Self-Discipline for China's Internet Industry, drafted by the government-approved Internet Society of China. Signatories agree to refrain from "producing, posting or disseminating harmful information that may jeopardize state security and disrupt social stability." Yahoo, an Internet pioneer that designed one of the Net's most popular search engines, was among the first foreign companies to sign the pledge, and a visit to the Yahoo China site demonstrates the company's compliance. Its search engine has effectively filtered out the vast majority of sites containing terms usually considered subversive by the Chinese government--including "human rights," "Falun Gong" and "Tiananmen 1989."

(Source: Los Angeles Times)

Goals Set For Information Over Next Five Years

China aims to increase the share of its IT industry in the country's GDP to 7%, raise national telecom-density to over 40%, and make radio and TV transmission available to 95% of its population by 2005, according to Liu He, Vice Minister of the State Council Information Office. Liu made the above remarks at a forum on globalization and information in Beijing in August. He also outlined major goals for e-government to be met by 2005: - Build a uniform platform and a general portal website for the central government; - Accelerate the building of four strategic databases of population, legal entities, space and natural geography, and the macro-economy; and complete 12 Golden-series e-government projects, including Golden Tax, Golden Customs, Golden Finance, Golden Card, Golden Shield, Golden Insurance, and Golden Water.

(Source: USITO)

Chinese Government Denied Knowledge Why Google Search Engine Is Blocked In China

China's Ministry of Information Industry, usually deals with internet, declared that they had no knowledge why the Google internet search engine, run by Yahoo! Inc, is blocked in China. An official, Mr. Li, from the Ministry of Information Industry, said he had no information about the block, which appeared to begin over the weekend. China's Public Security Ministry said it had nothing to do with any block; and while the government-run Internet group, the China Network Information Center, said it is only responsible for Chinese sites suffixed by ".cn". Additionally, the Foreign Ministry denied knowledge or information.

A Chinese internet industry body recently disclosed that, among other restrictions, the "Public Pledge on Self-Discipline for the China Internet Industry" compels signatories not to post information that will "jeopardize state security and disrupt social stability". The US-based Human Rights Watch criticized for being among the 120 or so companies that have agreed to the terms of the restrictions. Yahoo has refused to comment.

(Source: AFX European Focus)

Media Freedom Group Protests At China's Google Block

A US media freedom group, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists ("CPJ"), condemned on September 5 China's "censorship" in blocking access to the popular US-based Google Internet search engine run by Yahoo since the early September.

CPJ head Ann Cooper said CPJ was "very concerned" at the apparent Chinese action, arguing it would adversely affect access to information for both journalists and other citizens in the country. In the letter Ann Cooper wrote to China's President Jiang Zemin, she said that "Your government routinely blocks access to websites, including those of foreign news organizations and human rights groups, but this is the first time a search engine has been blocked". She urged Jiang to reverse the block "and uphold the right to free expression as guaranteed in both the Chinese constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which China has signed".

Yahoo spokeswoman Cindy McCaffrey said on September 4 that Yahoo was working with Chinese authorities in an attempt to remove the block. "Our users have confirmed that we are being blocked in China. We are currently working with Chinese authorities to restore service".

Yahoo had not received any specific information on why Google was being barred, she added. A series of Chinese ministries dealing with the Internet and state security have pleaded no knowledge over the ban.

The ban comes just before the vital Communist Party meeting during which an overhaul of the country's leadership could be made. A number of leaders including President Jiang Zemin could step down in a process beginning at the 16th Party Congress, starting on November 8.

China routinely blocks a large number of foreign-based sites, primarily those featuring dissident views or banned groups such as the Falungong spiritual organization, but also certain foreign news sites and pages showing pornography.

However it is the first time for Beijing to block Internet search engines, which carry links to other sites, but do not in themselves carry information.

(Source: Agence France Presse)

Two High - Tech Zones Decided To Cooperate

To boost China's domestic high-tech industry, China's two leading high-tech zones have announced their decision to cooperate in several areas.

The announcement was made recently by Pudong New District in Shanghai and Zhongguancun high-tech Development Zone in Beijing.

Zhongguancun, known as China's Silicon Valley, is currently the leader in national technological development, while Pudong New District is a booming powerhouse in Shanghai and even the Yangtze River Delta.

Zhongguancun and Pudong shall work together in areas such as technology development, the industrialization of research results, intellectual exchanges and high-risk investment.

Wang Ande, who is the vice director of Pudong New District, said with over 68 colleges and 230 institutions, Zhongguancun has abundant intellectual resources and scientific research results, which are badly needed in Pudong.

Zhao Mulan of the Zhongguangcun Science Park said that Pudong has attracted investment of 150 billion yuan (US$18.07 billion), and may become a funding source for Zhongguancun, which lacks capital.

Both areas have set aims to become top-level scientific and industrial zones in the world. Their joined force will infuse energy to the country's technology industry, experts say.

(Source: USITO)

The China Information Technology Law Newsletter is intended to be used for news purposes only. It should not be taken as comprehensive legal advice, and Lehman, Lee & Xu will not be held responsible for any such reliance on its contents.

Lehman Lee & Xu

China Lawyers, Notaries, Patent, Copyright and Trademark Agents

http://www.lehmanlaw.com

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