Chinese government's attitude towards Copyright enforcement

When it comes to Copyright law enforcement in China, the situation isn’t as stable as for example in the USA where Copyright laws are followed strictly. While the USA gives criminal charges over the infringement of Copyright, China rarely has court cases that are associated with the issue of Copyright. The main reason for this is the general attitude of Copyright in the Chinese society and in it’s culture. Copyright isn’t seen as a criminal act but rather something that is normal for them to do. They do not see anything wrong with sharing other people’s work, and on contrary see it as supporting the creator of the work. The more a work is shared, the more popular it is and the better it is for the artist, or so the Chinese people think.

Another issue of why the Copyright law isn’t as enforced is because of government corruption. If a political figure is bribed enough from third parties that profit from copyright infringement material, then he will overlook their activities in exchange for payment. This practice is common and oftentimes the people who infringe upon the Copyright don’t even approach the government official. Minor merchants who sell these stolen works don’t approach a high ranking official, but those who sell the works on a much larger scale could. An example of this would be Chinese websites such as Baidu from which the Chinese government gains profit from its revenue.

The government officials do not need to search far in order to find establishments that sell infringed works, and yet even though the merchants and shops are selling these Copyright infringement works on the streets, the authorities ignore them. This ignorance towards the breaking of Copyright laws is very interesting because if shows us the general attitude towards the issue the Chinese people as a whole have. In their culture, the theft of other works isn’t seen as something illegal. The market of fake goods has been integrated into their market throughout history that now they cannot go without it. If the market of false items were to decrease, then it would no doubt have an effect on the whole Chinese economy.

There are many companies in China that also operate on the basis of selling fake Copyright Infringed goods, such an example would be with car companies that copy the exact same models as that of other Western firms such as Bentley, Land Rover, and other vehicle designs. Not to mention the unlicensed Apple store that has no relation to the original Apple store in California. These cars as well as stores are outside in plain view for the government officials to see, and surely they are aware of them as well. However, they aren’t taking any action to bring these imitating companies to court or give out any fines as well.

In China, the Copyright law isn’t as enforced as it should be, giving it’s citizens free reign to infringe Copyright material on a large scale. As the capital of Fake goods, the enforcement of Copyright laws may harm the Chinese economy overall.