Asia IP

China withdrew 2.2 million non-copyrighted songs from the internet in July, the first month of its anti-piracy campaign, the National Copyright Administration told Xinhua.

While it is not known if any company has been sanctioned for offering non-copyrighted music, the agency responsible for protecting intellectual property in China stressed they cooperated with the campaign.

The regulator also aims to come up with a formula that will allow “streaming” music services and paying for corresponding rights at the same time.

In China, popular music platforms including Xiami Music, e-commerce giant Alibaba, and QQ Music from Tencent – largest Chinese internet and mobile services company – offer music for free.

The NCA had ordered such companies in early July to withdraw music that did not have network license and warned of “serious punishment” in case of failure to comply.

The campaign aims to provide credibility to the system of protection of intellectual property in the world’s second-largest economy, where intellectual property right violations are common and a constant source of commercial disputes with the United States, the European Union and Japan.