China’s periodicals, as quality copyrighted content, are not only an important national strategic resource but the most internationally competitive products that come in line with the digital age and help form cultural soft power. Such content bears brand and public trust, and is of carefully selected topics and well-shaped forms. It is deep and timely enough, and possesses a natural division among audience and clear-cut target groups. As successive publications, periodicals claim exceptional reader loyalty and cohesiveness.

All these characteristics make periodicals fit for online reading, especially after 3G, handheld and e-reader products have matured. From 2009, as China started issuing 3G licenses, Amazon’s Kindle set off the wild fire o f mobile reading and opened a new chapter in digital reading. In 2010, Apple launched its iPhone and iPad, again expanding room for the reading of periodicals and announcing the end of “free ride” Internet services. An era of unthinkably wide mobile reading is approaching.

 

Copyright issues have become the most clogging bottleneck holding back the digitalization of periodicals, especially China’s laws and regulations on the right to network dissemination of information. The Regulation on the Protection of the Right to Network Dissemination of Information of 2006 promulgated by the State Council, covered a wide range of issues and played a historical role in protecting the rights of authors. The Provisional Rules on Internet Publications, now eight years in force, require that journalistic publishers first obtain author’s right to network dissemination of information before they put any content online, which, however, has not been properly carried out in reality.

It is worrisome that we still use a provisional regulation of little practicality to administrate a mainstream, gigantic and fast-changing industry, when fundamental changes have taken place in the industry of Internet and digital content. Although the Regulations covered many aspects and played a historical role in defending authors’ rights and interests, it is unrealistic to try to solve all copyright-related questions with the notion of “the right to network dissemination of information.”

Qikan.com.cn signed contracts with 3,000 periodicals, whose content involves more than 100,000 authors every month. Although some scholars and institutions suggested collective authorization and management, it is impossible for the China Written Works Copyright Society to hold the information of all authors and act accordingly, considering the vast number of authors as well as magazine’s demand for expediency. More important, for an author, a work acquires irreversible social qualities once he decided to publish it. Then the central question is how to protect rights, not the form of licensing. Current regulations take the rigid way of copyright protection, restricting lawful business but remain helpless in the face of purposeful and naked piracy. When it comes to BBS and portal sites, for example, slow and incomplete laws and regulations on copyright might deprive quality content of China’s social and cultural magazines a historical opportunity of growth.

According to statistics by the General Administration of Press and Publication, China’s digital publishing had surpassed traditional publishing in terms of industrial output in 2010, and the Internet is facing an unprecedented reform. Under such social circumstances, the entire world, including China, lags behind in digital publishing legislation. Does China dare to lead the world in this regard? 

Digital publishing are calling urgently the coming out of related laws and regulations. In western countries where law-making is relatively independent, judges are able to first give rulings and then revise laws according to these rulings. But in China, the existing system demands strict observance of current laws even if they are obsolete. Since law making is a long drawn-out process, the absence of copyright legislation under cyber environment has caused significant losses to the society and industries in the rapid-moving fields including the Internet, mobile Net and digital publishing.

 

Copyright system is doubtless a major progress in the human history, for it offers statutory protection to intangible culture, especially creative works such as texts and images from authors. In a digital era, as the Internet and mobile Internet evolve very fast, the way of copyright protection should also undergo fundamental changes. Considering China’s conditions, we should revise the Provisional Rules on Internet Publications and the Regulation on the Protection of the Right to Network Dissemination of Information, and modify the Copyright Law to further clarify the notions of “digital publishing,” “digital distribution” and “digital dissemination.”

The idea “publishing” bears special meaning in China, for it is still a controlled industry whereas in the West it is primarily unrestricted. So, we cannot use western laws and conventions based on mass publication and liberal publication to explain the idea of publication in China. Currently, all publishers must obtain approval of the General Administration of Press and Publication and related authorities. Besides ISBN for books and magazines, administrative approval and management are also in place, not to mention laws and regulations. There are strict demands on content quality, and editing and proofreading are always parts of the publishing process. Digital publishing, except for the forms of carrier (paper, the Net or e-reader), is completely the same with traditional publishing, unless we make another set of standards for online publishing. But if that is the case restrictions targeting traditional publishers will be rendered totally unnecessary.

The sale or download of unedited contents of government-sanctioned journals through the internet and mobile devices (such as handheld devices and e-readers) should be treated as “distribution” on the internet, rather than “publication,” for which no reauthorization from the copyright holder should be required.

As the main body of intellectual property value chain, the rights and interests of copyright holders must be protected and maximized. Laws and regulations should stipulate explicitly that in the digitalized publishing of right holders’ works, digitalized technological means must be employed to quantify their rights and interests and protect them substantially.

Intellectual property indeed suffered a “catastrophe” during the past decade, when the IT industry featuring free-of-charge content on the Web developed rapidly. This is also the main cause of authors’ distrust of and aversion to websites. But from a historical perspective, one can hardly expect the Internet, as an epoch-making technological revolution, to be perfect from the very beginning. Free dissemination of information on the Web once contributed to today’s prosperity. But more important, we must be fully aware that such a mode is unsustainable for its fundamental denying the value of knowledge and killing the motives of original creations.

The “knowledge-based theory,” compared with “capital-based” and “power-based” theories, emphasizes that creators of knowledge should become the main body and largest beneficiary in the entire industrial chain of intellectual property. Every article is a piece of wisdom from the author, and an excellent author could only produce a limited number of fine works during his lifetime. According to traditional standards, an author could only receive hundreds of yuan once and for all for a work of a few thousand characters. The contribution fee, capital-centered in nature, “buys off ” the copyright holder’s rights and possibility of continuous profits. The fee, no matter how high, looks unscientific in terms o f quantifying the value of knowledge. In the print era, as magazines were printed in a limited number of copies, contribution fee turned out a reasonable method of once-and-for-all licensing. But in the time of the Internet and mobile Net, a work can be made available for sale permanently and worldwide, giving authors virtually an infinite range o f rights and interests. On the other hand, in the digital era, the real value of an article is no longer only judged by publishers and editors, and administrators, but by its beneficiaries and consumers. It came as a consolation that in October 2010, Sun Shoushan, Deputy Director of the General Administration of Press and Publication, made it clear in a keynote speech at the annual conference of China’s digital publishing the state’s determination was to break the bottleneck of digital copyright. he said that the Administration had started formulating regulations and qualification standards to further differentiate “digital publishing, digital distribution and digital production,” and give them qualifications and responsibilities respectively. I believe that the government support to digital publishing is great and prompt, and I have full confidence in the implementation o f The Outline of the National Intellectual Property Strategy.

Readers’ actual consumption is the most scientific way to assess the value of knowledge and intellectual assets. What will be the most advanced, most reasonable and feasible solution to IP interests during the digitalization course of traditional magazines? We believe it should be “fees calculated on the number of pieces and transparent sharing.” In a time when print magazines still dominate but digital ones are moving fast, magazine publishers, as state-approved institutions, can still follow the method of imposing contribution fee. But at the same time, they should calculate the profits o f digital publishing in the “royalty” mode and in a quantified and dynamic way. The largest advantage of digital publishing is that data bank is able to record accurately every use, including times, duration, user, payment rate, etc.. The qualifications o f digital publishers must be strictly standardized and reviewed. To dispel worries of right holders such as authors and publishers, non-profit institutions for collective management of copyright and industry society should be set up on top of laws and regulations.

 

The first o f the five strategic focuses of The Outline of the National Intellectual Property Strategy is to further improve and revise IP laws and regulations. As a front-line practitioner in digital publishing, Dragonsource Group bears responsibility and duty to give suggestions in this regard to help push forward legislation on digital copyright.

It came as a consolation that in October 2010, Sun Shoushan, Deputy Director of  the  General Administration of  Press and Publication, made it clear in a keynote speech at the annual conference of  China’s digital publishing the state’s determination was to break the bottleneck of  digital copyright. he said that the Administration had started formulating regulations and qualification standards to further differentiate “digital publishing, digital distribution and digital production,” and give them qualifications and responsibilities respectively. I believe that the government support to digital publishing is great and prompt, and I have full confidence in the implementation of The Outline of the National Intellectual Property Strategy.