China's copyright authorities yesterday agreed with American and British counterparts to strengthen cooperation in online copyright protection.

 

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the Establishment of a Coordination Mechanism for Online Copyright Protection was signed in Beijing by the National Copyright Administration of China (NCA) and the Motion Picture Association, Business Software Alliance, Association of American Publishers and Britain-based The Publishers Association.

 

According to the MOU, all sides will strengthen and improve the authenticity of copyright authorization, and communicate on cracking down transnational online piracy and copyright infringement on a regular basis.

 

The American and British sides will provide timely lists of their member companies to NCA, pursuing the protection of their movies, software, video and audio products and written works.

 

They will also provide information on pirated activities that harm the copyrights of their member companies.

 

NCA will investigate in reported cases and hand those illegal ones over to judicial departments.

 

Cooperation on publicity and training will be enhanced and regular meetings be held to exchange views on anti-piracy issues, according to the MOU.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 16, 2006)