Along with booming online literature in recent years, copyright infringements have also grown, with statistics showing that online literature has lost 5.83 billion yuan ($847 million). Although the campaign against copyright infringement has slowed down piracy, it remains an arduous task to protect the copyright of online literature and create a healthy Internet ecology.

Compared to video and audio products, online literature requires a very small storage space and very little server and bandwidth space, creating extra difficulties for copyright supervision and protection. Meanwhile, the popularity of mobile reading apps makes crackdown harder.

An effective way to fight against infringement and piracy would be combining administrative, judicial and social efforts. The copyright protection system needs to be improved to serve the campaign to crack down on infringement and piracy. As online literature becomes one of the major sources of cultural and entertainment industries, losses caused by infringement and piracy have also greatly increased. Punishment needs to be strengthened to further deter criminals.

Innovation should be encouraged with institutional guarantees, so as to promote the creation and production of excellent Internet works including literature. The copyright governance model should be upgraded and a collaborative mechanism created. In addition, the sharing of copyright information and more transparent trading platforms should be advocated to better motivate creativity.

(This is an edited excerpt of an article originally published in People's Daily on May 13)