Eric Zhu is quoted by BusinessWeeks’ messrs. Bruce Einhorn and Xiang Ji’s article Deaf To Music Piracy, saying that the law is to blame mostly for the disrespect for music copyrights in China.
However, IP Dragon begs to differ that it is mainly a law based problem. In my thesis ‘Paper Tiger or Roaring Dragon, China’s TRIPs implementations and enforcement‘ (pdf) I come to the conclusion that China’s IPR laws are by and large TRIPs-compliant (however TRIPs is intrinsically weak). The problem is mainly caused by extra-judicial factors.
If you listen real carefully (like the Chinese character on the right side you have to listen with your ear, eye and heart), you can hear also some positive voices (although quite hollow) in a world of music piracy. One such voice is coming from Jianguang Li, a partner with IDGVC Partners, part of Framingham (Mass.)-based International Data Group and one of the biggest venture-capital investors in China. Messrs. Einhorn and Xiang quote him saying that “more Chinese are learning to respect intellectual property online. Li’s fund has even invested in Chinese companies that charge for music and TV programming delivered over the Net. “Three years ago we definitely couldn’t make the model work,” he says.“
Read the BusinessWeek article here.
