China's Internet surfer population of 162 million is one of the largest in the world, second only to that of the United States. But how to regulate the ever-expanding netizen population against violating digital copyright laws has become a major issue in the country's copyright protection efforts.

Myriad Chinese Internet surfers are used to downloading movies, listening to music online and watching live web casts, all for free. To some extent, this free-of-charge model partly underpins the rapid development of China's Internet-related industries.

Websites in China have been subjected to stricter copyright protection rules since June 9, when the country implemented two international copyright conventions, although many were concerned it might harm the development of the Internet in China.

The two treaties-the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty-have introduced to the digital environment the concepts and principles of traditional copyright, as stipulated by two historical conventions on copyrights for artistic works and recordings adopted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886 and in Rome in 1961.

The two new treaties that China has just accepted also try to solve the new problems of copyright protection brought by new technologies. They provide additional protections for copyrights deemed necessary by copyright-dependent industries due to advances in information technology. They ensure that computer programs are protected as literary works and that the arrangement and selection of material in databases are protected. They also provide authors of works with control over the rental and distribution of their products, which they may not have under the Berne Convention alone.

"The implementation of these two treaties will not exert much influence on China," said Li Shunde, a professor at the Intellectual Property Rights Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. " The amendment of the copyright law in 2001 has absorbed the major clauses of these two treaties."

Since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001, Western countries have been pressuring it to protect intellectual property rights (IPR). Unhappy with what they see as a lack of progress in this area, the countries link China's IPR issue to trade disagreements.

"China has completed building a comprehensive legal system on IPR protection, which meets the requirements of international treaties," Li said. But he added that China's practice in this regard lags behind that of Western industrial countries.

The common difficulty for all countries in protecting Internet copyright is striking a balance between copyright holders, Internet service providers and the public, Li said. Developed countries have made bolder moves than developing countries in this aspect, he added.

Since joining the two international copyright treaties, China has been given more say in drafting and revising international copyright protection rules to better reflect the national interests of developing countries, said Yan Xiaohong, Deputy Director of the National Copyright Administration (NCA).

In the next stage, the NCA will embark on building a digital copyright supervision platform and setting up national funds to reward any member of the public who exposes online piracy, Yan said.

Since 2003, the music subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., Universal Music Group Inc. and Sony BMG Music Entertainment Inc. have sued karaoke bars in China for using their sing-along music videos for customers and as background music. The NCA has said that Chinese karaoke bars should pay fees to music-video makers. So far, the lawsuit remains unsettled due to the big controversy over pricing standards and supervision of usage. As the two international treaties on Internet copyright took effect in China, the ongoing battle has expanded into the Internet arena.

Online karaoke singing has become tremendously popular in China over the last two years as the latest form of digital entertainment. Karaoke fans can enjoy singing at home with a PC, a microphone and a stereo. Online karaoke websites, most of which are free of charge, provide the original sing-along videos made by music companies, but they do not pay the companies. The huge song database, convenient for locating a song and high-quality sound effects, has quickly attracted a large group of users.

In January 2007, EMI Group Inc. sued the Chinese online karaoke website www.ikala.cn for providing downloads and online broadcast services of five EMI songs without the company's permission.

"How to protect the copyright of music videos online remains a blind zone," said Yu Guofu from Internet Society of China.

Li believes that according to current laws and regulations, it is evident that online karaoke services, such as those found in most karaoke halls, constitute copyright violations. But the laws and regulations have no detailed clauses on pricing standards and schemes, he added.

"The implementation of the two international conventions on online copyright protection will accelerate the solution to this problem," Li said.

There are already some signs that China has begun making headway in this area. The country's Musicians Association already has started drafting fee guidelines for those who use music videos online, said Yu Yaoqing, head of China's Audio and Video Association's liaison office in Hunan Province.