Singer Tengger angry at China's rampant piracy
- By Zhang Rui
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 4, 2014
Ethnic Mongolian singer and political advisor Tengger told China.org.cn he is angry about piracy in China and wants to fight it.
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Ethnic Mongolian singer and political advisor Tengger [Photo/China.org.cn] |
His comment came at the Second Session of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing, the annual summit of the political advisory body.
"What I'm going to talk about this year is piracy in cultural sectors, including films and music, and stealing the image, likeness and reputation rights of artists," Tengger said, "We have been talking about this for years and years, but the situation hasn't improved."
The famous ethnic Mongolian singer said that although the central government is paying a lot of attention to intellectual property, the copyright protection laws and regulations are not enough. In his proposal, he also noted that copyright holders lack awareness of copyright protection, and piracy is rampant. The law is not efficient and legal procedures are complicated, and it is embarrassing for China’s cultural industry.
"I'm a victim too," Tengger said, "One time a company stole my image for a commercial advertisement, violating my rights. We went into legal proceedings for three years and I won eventually. However, the compensation the court awarded me was just a very small amount of my costs."
He continued, "If it went like this every time, companies would think they don't have to sign any deals with me. They would just use my image without permission! Such things happen all the time."
In Tengger's proposal, he appealed the government to introduce heavy punishments for pirates, copyright violations and image infringements. Otherwise, the piracy will reappear, no matter how many times it is cracked down upon.
China registers an average of about 200,000 administrative punishment cases concerning IPR infringement each year.
As many as 59,222 people suspected of intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement were seized by Chinese police in 2013 and they were involved in 55,180 cases with an estimated value of 173 billion yuan (about US$28 billion), the Ministry of Public Security revealed in January 2014.
