Does China need international cooperation with online infringement?

Internet-based copyright infringement is pretty much the only way people can keep track of TV and movies from abroad in Beijing. It's hard to even find legal DVDs, and if there aren't even illegal DVDs to buy, it's often trivially easy to find entire movies on Youku or Tudou.

Yesterday, a Chinese public-security ministry official asked for international help in copyright enforcement, noting that many infringers use Web sites hosted outside Chinese jurisdiction.

"Copyright infringements, by their very nature, are international crimes. To effectively curb such activities, (we) need enhanced international cooperation on law enforcement," said Gao Feng, the official.

I don't doubt that international borders are a challenge for Chinese enforcers, but they certainly could do more here. The illegal streaming versions of movies and TV series from Chinese video sites are even fueling viewers in the United States, where DVDs are no minor investment. The only sacrifices for viewers are the need to wait for buffering and some loss in resolution.

Until legal DVDs or iTunes-like download or rental services are available to the Chinese market, however, I can't imagine that people will stop watching the free or cheap pirated versions.

[hackingbear]

China already have the best firewall in the world. If they can't enforce this, who can?

Simple solution: the copyright holders (or the motion picture association) pays China Telecom and other network provider to block their contents from being downloaded.

For violations in the U.S., don't worry. We have the lawyers.

For the rest of the world, who care about the rest of the world?

[aaydogan]

The so-called Chinese "government" is made up of nothing but a bunch of illiterate thugs whose only qualification are membership in a party of hacks. For Chinese "officials" to ask for help in criminal enforcement is the ultimate irony. What the world should do is to help bring down these despots, open the Chinese market so that copyright infringement becomes unnecessary. Gao Feng can go gao feng himself!

[hammc]

youku is using iframes to post whole movies to the web
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6420391618331572996&q=hancock&ei=u4SGSJTfJoqUrgKY3NjUCg

[hammc]

Correction:
YouKu.com is using iframes to show films posts to be searchable for google videos
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6420391618331572996&q=hancock&ei=u4SGSJTfJoqUrgKY3NjUCg