CRI听力:China's Copyright Industry Develops Rapidly

The China Copyright Annual Meeting has kicked off in Beijing. Copyright experts from across the country have gathered here to draft development goals for next year. Zhang Cheng has more.

The China Copyright Protection Center is hosting the first annual meeting of national and international copyright experts.

Zou Jianhua, the center's Deputy Chief, talked about the aim of the conference at the opening ceremony.

"This year's meeting with the theme of 'service' will have several forums on the topics of 'the development of China's copyright protection system,' 'new content of the copyright service, 'and 'the relationship between an improved copyright system and culture industry'."(www.hXen.com)

In March, the World Trade Organization, issued its final report on a 2007 case brought by the United States regarding a U.S.-China dispute over copyright and customs matters.

In the report, the WTO rejected most of the U.S.'s accusations that China had violated its obligations related to intellectual property.

Li Dongdong is Deputy Director of China's General Administration of Press and Publication.

She says as China's copyright industry develops rapidly, copyrights serve as an intangible stimulus to make the country's culture industry more competitive around the world.

"It is delightful to see people's copyright protection consciousness is rising. As the implementation of the National Intellectual Property Strategy, copyright-related industry will play an important role in society. An improved copyright system will encourage innovation and help spread more cultural works."

Although China is a latecomer to copyright protection, it has made remarkable progress in recent years.

In 1990, China adopted the country's first copyright law. Since then, the Chinese government has worked hard to help build an international environment for protecting intellectual property rights.

In 1984, the Chinese government submitted its instrument of accession to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property to the World Intellectual Property Organization and became a member state.

China has also created International Copyright Exchanges, or ICEs, in Beijing to provide a platform for copyright exchanges.

At the current conference in Beijing, the ICE has created a nationwide network for the exchange of copyrights. The network includes copyright trading markets in China's major cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Zhang Tian, President of the Shanghai Copyright Exchanges, read the declaration at the ceremony.

"We will cooperate with each other to gradually unify the copyright trading system and integrate trading resourcesand channels to help copyrights flow freely in the country."

During the two-day conference, experts from the United States and Japan will discuss Sino-American internet copyright protection and future Sino-Japanese copyright cooperation.

Zhang Cheng, CRI News.