Digital Piracy in China

Alongside Baidu and Tencents recent pledges to rid the Chinese Internet of bad information, it now also looks like China is also going to begin cracking down on digital piracy. After a number of statements in the past from various companies including Baidu and Youku, it finally seems that the piracy of TV shows, movies, music and software may gradually come to an end in China.

Baidu who previously housed a controversial mp3 search feature which indexed mp3s from various sites and allowed users to download them without even visiting the home site has now set up a licensed mp3 sharing and searching section to their site. This section utilizes a flash player where most of the music available is actually licensed and is set to replace the previous mp3 deep index search. Rumors exist that Baidu has also set up a partnership with a major music label to ensure all the music released on the site is completely legal.

Not only Baidu is stepping up to piracy issues though for Youku, Tudou and Ku6, three of Chinas biggest video hosting sites have also begun deleting several TV shows and movies from their servers, leaving many users with years of uploaded content suddenly gone. Obviously this change won’t be immediate and these shows will still exist in the short term, it is evident that all sites are serious about the issue and we can expect the amount of pirated videos to decrease.

Youku has also issued a premium service where users can pay to view several recent release blockbuster films as well as several films which can be watched for free. With prices as low as RMB 5 per movie, you can’t be sure how long the service will last. Baidu also has launched a similar service Qiyi.com which from the beginning has been a licensed movie and TV show provider, and currently offers American shows such as Desperate Housewives, etc.

Not only music and movies are being protected from this change. A crackdown on pirated software is also taking place. The Beijing State Intellectual Property Office has issued a warning stating that companies must be running legal copies of software, such as Windows, MS Office and Adobe PhotoShop once this new piracy deadline hits at the end of February.

China's Internet is fixing up its piracy issues slowly but surely and is coming up with legal ways for Chinese netizens to continue to watch movies, and stream their favorite music at low costs. At such cheap prices we have to hope Baidu and Youku can continue to support these services and that Chinese Internet users won’t turn to the easy global option of bit-torrenting anything they wish to download.