Why 2013 Will Be the Worst Year Ever for China Tech:
Amidst all the 2012 in review madness, I thought it might be fun to turn our eyes to the future for a moment and make some predictions about what’s coming in 2013. Well, “fun” is a relative term. Call me a pessimist, but I think 2013 is going to be the worst year ever for China’s tech industry. Why
Internet censorship will get worse. China’s Great Firewall got an upgrade this month, and the blockage of many popular VPNs has already begun to affect businesses. There’s no reason to expect that will get any better in the new year, with government mouthpiece the People’s Daily calling for stricter internet regulation and reports suggesting the government may implement mandatory real-name registration for anyone who wants to get on the internet at all. All indications are that next year, China’s internet is going to be less free than ever before.
Social media censorship will get worse. Sina Weibo had a pretty ridiculous year when it comes to censorship, but with the new 7-day search delay and rumors of a new, more thorough real-name system don’t make the future sound all that bright. But the bad news isn’t just limited to Weibo; we have seen indications that the government is concerned about newcomer WeChat — even as it uses the service to track dissidents — so expect that to get a censorship smackdown in the coming year, too.
The mobile market will be restricted. One of China’s tech regulatory bodies, MIIT, is planning to reach its cold, bony hands into the world of mobile app development and sales. Exactly how that will turn out isn’t yet clear, but MIIT’s regulatory processes are the reason an iPhone takes an extra three months to come out in China. App developers are understandably concerned that they’re going to be slowed down — which can be a death sentence in the fast-paced mobile ecosystem — or censored, or very possibly both. Whatever happens with this round of regulation, I would guess that this won’t be the only time we see MIIT interfering in the mobile space in 2013.
More state control is coming, or at least is planned. While the government has been pushing state-owned companies to operate like real companies and try to actually make money rather, it hasn’t gone to much effort to support domestic innovators in the private sector. For example, SARFT (China’s fun police and film censorship bureau) recently smacked-down Chinese startup Xiaomi’s attempts to get into the TV game, and it has also established a state-run subsidiary company that it hopes will control the domestic internet, mobile, and television industries.
All of this is bad for business. In addition to just being off-putting and restrictive, almost all of this is bad for business and development. China’s internet is increasingly isolated from the rest of the world’s, which stifles domestic innovation and discourages foreign investment. And China’s restrictive policies, coupled with the unethical behavior of some high-profile Chinese tech companies, have helped ensure that it is tougher than ever for Chinese tech companies to expand overseas.
Now, are there some signs of good things, too? Of course. Smartphone and broadband penetration are up and will likely continue climbing rapidly throughout next year. Internet speeds are getting faster, and we might even see China’s first 4G network in 2013 (but probably not). Still, though, speed and access are less meaningful when the number of things you can actually do on China’s internet seems to be dwindling by the day.
I think 2013 will be the worst year ever for the web/tech industry in China. Here’s hoping that I’m really, really wrong.
Showing posts with label legal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label legal. Show all posts
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Saturday, December 29, 2012
China tightens Internet rules - Channel NewsAsia
China tightens Internet rules - Channel NewsAsia
BEIJING: China has approved new rules that require Internet users nationwide to provide real-name identification, state media reported on Friday, as the government increases its already tight online grip.
The National People's Congress (NPC), the country's legislature, adopted the measures at a meeting on Friday, the official Xinhua news agency and other media said.
According to Xinhua, the decision, which came at the end of a five-day session of the NPC Standing Committee, requires Internet users to offer their names as identification to telecommunication service providers when seeking access to their services.
"Network service providers will ask users to provide genuine identification information when signing agreements to grant them access to the Internet, fixed-line telephone or mobile telecommunication services or to allow users to post information publicly," Xinhua said, quoting the decision.
Popular microblogging sites similar to Twitter have been used in China to air grievances and even to reveal wrongdoing by officials, and such muckraking is tolerated when it dovetails with the government's own desire to rein in corruption.
But with more than half a billion Chinese now online, authorities are concerned about the power of the Internet to influence public opinion in a country that maintains tight controls on its traditional media outlets.
Beijing already regularly blocks Internet searches under a vast online censorship system known as the Great Firewall of China, but the growing popularity of microblogs, known as "weibos", has posed a new challenge.
The firewall has been built up over time since the Internet began to develop in China, and uses a range of technologies to block access to particular sites' IP addresses from Chinese computers.
Censors also keep watch on the weibos that have been used to organise protests and challenge official accounts of events such as a deadly 2011 rail crash that sparked fierce criticism of the government.
Dissident artist and fierce government critic Ai Weiwei on Friday criticised efforts to hinder Internet discourse.
"Blocking the Internet, an action that will limit the exchange of information, is an uncivilised and inhumane crime," he said on Twitter, which is banned in China, but accessible for Internet users with more sophisticated equipment.
Li Fei, a senior member of the legislature, said on Friday that there was no need to worry that the new rules could hinder citizen exposure of wrongdoing, Xinhua reported.
"Identity management work can be conducted backstage, allowing users to use different names when posting material publicly," Xinhua further quoted him as saying earlier this week.
Previously, only microblog users in five cities -- the capital Beijing, the commercial hub of Shanghai, the northern port city of Tianjin and the southern cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen -- were required to provide their real names under a trial that started a year ago.
In the past, users had been able to set up microblog accounts under assumed names, making it more difficult for authorities to track them down, and allowing them to set up new accounts if existing ones were shut down.
It was not immediately clear if users would be able to find ways to skirt the requirement, though according to Xinhua, the trend has been towards registration.
It said that by last month, nearly all fixed-line users and 70 percent of mobile users had registered with their own names, citing figures from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
The ministry, which regulates the online sector in China, said in June that the then-proposed legal changes were needed to protect state security.Xinhua, in a separate commentary on Friday, said the new rules are meant to defend the legal rights of Internet users "and will help, rather than harm, the country's netizens" by, for example, protecting their privacy.
-AFP/ac
BEIJING: China has approved new rules that require Internet users nationwide to provide real-name identification, state media reported on Friday, as the government increases its already tight online grip.
The National People's Congress (NPC), the country's legislature, adopted the measures at a meeting on Friday, the official Xinhua news agency and other media said.
According to Xinhua, the decision, which came at the end of a five-day session of the NPC Standing Committee, requires Internet users to offer their names as identification to telecommunication service providers when seeking access to their services.
"Network service providers will ask users to provide genuine identification information when signing agreements to grant them access to the Internet, fixed-line telephone or mobile telecommunication services or to allow users to post information publicly," Xinhua said, quoting the decision.
Popular microblogging sites similar to Twitter have been used in China to air grievances and even to reveal wrongdoing by officials, and such muckraking is tolerated when it dovetails with the government's own desire to rein in corruption.
But with more than half a billion Chinese now online, authorities are concerned about the power of the Internet to influence public opinion in a country that maintains tight controls on its traditional media outlets.
Beijing already regularly blocks Internet searches under a vast online censorship system known as the Great Firewall of China, but the growing popularity of microblogs, known as "weibos", has posed a new challenge.
The firewall has been built up over time since the Internet began to develop in China, and uses a range of technologies to block access to particular sites' IP addresses from Chinese computers.
Censors also keep watch on the weibos that have been used to organise protests and challenge official accounts of events such as a deadly 2011 rail crash that sparked fierce criticism of the government.
Dissident artist and fierce government critic Ai Weiwei on Friday criticised efforts to hinder Internet discourse.
"Blocking the Internet, an action that will limit the exchange of information, is an uncivilised and inhumane crime," he said on Twitter, which is banned in China, but accessible for Internet users with more sophisticated equipment.
Li Fei, a senior member of the legislature, said on Friday that there was no need to worry that the new rules could hinder citizen exposure of wrongdoing, Xinhua reported.
"Identity management work can be conducted backstage, allowing users to use different names when posting material publicly," Xinhua further quoted him as saying earlier this week.
Previously, only microblog users in five cities -- the capital Beijing, the commercial hub of Shanghai, the northern port city of Tianjin and the southern cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen -- were required to provide their real names under a trial that started a year ago.
In the past, users had been able to set up microblog accounts under assumed names, making it more difficult for authorities to track them down, and allowing them to set up new accounts if existing ones were shut down.
It was not immediately clear if users would be able to find ways to skirt the requirement, though according to Xinhua, the trend has been towards registration.
It said that by last month, nearly all fixed-line users and 70 percent of mobile users had registered with their own names, citing figures from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
The ministry, which regulates the online sector in China, said in June that the then-proposed legal changes were needed to protect state security.Xinhua, in a separate commentary on Friday, said the new rules are meant to defend the legal rights of Internet users "and will help, rather than harm, the country's netizens" by, for example, protecting their privacy.
-AFP/ac
Sunday, November 25, 2012
China slams distorted view of copyright piracy problem | Reuters
China slams distorted view of copyright piracy problem | Reuters:
By Ben Blanchard
BEIJING | Sun Nov 11, 2012 4:05am EST
(Reuters) - China's top official in charge of fighting copyright piracy on Sunday slammed what he said was deliberate distortion of the problem by the Western media caused by the country's poor global image, saying important facts had been ignored.
"Speaking honestly, there is a market. People use and buy pirated goods," Tian told reporters on the sidelines of a landmark Communist Party congress.
By Ben Blanchard
BEIJING | Sun Nov 11, 2012 4:05am EST
(Reuters) - China's top official in charge of fighting copyright piracy on Sunday slammed what he said was deliberate distortion of the problem by the Western media caused by the country's poor global image, saying important facts had been ignored.
Foreign governments, including the United States, have for years urged China to take a stronger stand against pervasive violations of intellectual property rights on products ranging from medicines to software to DVD movies sold on the street.
The United States in April again put China, along with Russia, on its annual list of countries with the worst records of preventing the theft of copyrighted material and other intellectual property.
But Tian Lipu, head of China's State Intellectual Property Office, said the government's efforts were being ignored.
"To a large extent, China's intellectual property rights protection image has been distorted by Western media.
"China's image overseas is very poor. As soon as people hear China they think or piracy and counterfeiting -- (Beijing's) Sanlitun, that place in Shanghai, Luohu in Shenzhen," he said, referring to places notorious for selling fake goods.
"We don't deny (this problem), and we are continuing to battle against it," Tian added.
But other facts were overlooked, he said.
"For example, China is the world's largest payer for patent rights, for trademark rights, for royalties, and one of the largest for buying real software," he said. "We pay the most. People rarely talk about this, but it really is a fact. Our government offices, our banks, our insurance companies, our firms ... the software is all real."
Microsoft Corp and other members of the Business Software Alliance in the United States complain that nearly 80 percent of the software installed on personal computers in China is pirated.
Tian said that if companies like Apple Inc were so worried by piracy they would never choose China for their production bases.
"Of the goods made for Apple, most are made in China. Once Apple's brand is added to it and it is exported to the United States its value doubles," he said.
"This could only happen because China's intellectual property rights environment sets foreign investors at ease allowing them to come to China to manufacture."
The International Intellectual Property Alliance, a U.S. coalition of film, software, music and publishing groups, estimates that U.S. companies lost more than $15 billion in 2009 due to international copyright theft.
About $14 billion of the total was due to software piracy, with an estimated $3.5 billion in losses in China and $1.4 billion in Russia.
"China's image overseas is very poor. As soon as people hear China they think or piracy and counterfeiting -- (Beijing's) Sanlitun, that place in Shanghai, Luohu in Shenzhen," he said, referring to places notorious for selling fake goods.
"We don't deny (this problem), and we are continuing to battle against it," Tian added.
But other facts were overlooked, he said.
"For example, China is the world's largest payer for patent rights, for trademark rights, for royalties, and one of the largest for buying real software," he said. "We pay the most. People rarely talk about this, but it really is a fact. Our government offices, our banks, our insurance companies, our firms ... the software is all real."
Microsoft Corp and other members of the Business Software Alliance in the United States complain that nearly 80 percent of the software installed on personal computers in China is pirated.
Tian said that if companies like Apple Inc were so worried by piracy they would never choose China for their production bases.
"Of the goods made for Apple, most are made in China. Once Apple's brand is added to it and it is exported to the United States its value doubles," he said.
"This could only happen because China's intellectual property rights environment sets foreign investors at ease allowing them to come to China to manufacture."
The International Intellectual Property Alliance, a U.S. coalition of film, software, music and publishing groups, estimates that U.S. companies lost more than $15 billion in 2009 due to international copyright theft.
About $14 billion of the total was due to software piracy, with an estimated $3.5 billion in losses in China and $1.4 billion in Russia.
(Editing by Ron Popeski)
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
TODAYonline | Technology | Google to downgrade pirate sites in search results
TODAYonline | Technology | Google to downgrade pirate sites in search results:
Updated 11:24 AM Aug 12, 2012
LOS ANGELES - Google is altering its search results to de-emphasise the websites of repeat copyright offenders and make it easier to find legitimate providers of music, movies and other content.
The move is a peace offering to Hollywood and the music recording labels. This year, Google joined other Silicon Valley heavyweights to help kill legislation that would have given government and content creators more power to shut down foreign websites that promote piracy.
The Motion Picture Association of America issued a lukewarm response, saying it was "optimistic" the change would help steer consumers away from piracy.
"We will be watching this development closely - the devil is always in the details," MPAA senior executive president Michael O'Leary said in a statement.
Next week, Google will start using "valid copyright removal notices" to rank its search results, according to a Friday blog post by Google's senior vice president of engineering, Mr Amit Singhal.
Google typically ranks websites based on how many other sites link to them, on the belief that sites that get more links are more trustworthy and useful. But Google also regularly tweaks its formulas to reflect special circumstances.
In this case, sites with high numbers of copyright-removal notices may get bumped down in rankings. In effect, that will help users find legitimate sources of content without removing any pages from its results completely. Google did not elaborate on what it considers to be valid notices.
Google's icy relationship with content creators has thawed slightly.
Last month, Google said it would offer a US$50 (S$62) -per-month TV package over a super-fast fiber network in a Kansas City test bed. The package would offer mainstream channels including Nickelodeon.
Google, which is based in Mountain View, California, also sells movies and music through its Google Play store on mobile devices that use its Android operating system.
But a US$1 billion copyright lawsuit filed by Viacom against Google's YouTube in 2007 was re-instated by a federal appeals court in April after a lower court threw it out.
And last week, court papers showed that the Authors Guild is demanding Google pay US$750 for each of the 20 million books it has scanned in a 7-year-old case. AP
Updated 11:24 AM Aug 12, 2012
LOS ANGELES - Google is altering its search results to de-emphasise the websites of repeat copyright offenders and make it easier to find legitimate providers of music, movies and other content.
The move is a peace offering to Hollywood and the music recording labels. This year, Google joined other Silicon Valley heavyweights to help kill legislation that would have given government and content creators more power to shut down foreign websites that promote piracy.
The Motion Picture Association of America issued a lukewarm response, saying it was "optimistic" the change would help steer consumers away from piracy.
"We will be watching this development closely - the devil is always in the details," MPAA senior executive president Michael O'Leary said in a statement.
Next week, Google will start using "valid copyright removal notices" to rank its search results, according to a Friday blog post by Google's senior vice president of engineering, Mr Amit Singhal.
Google typically ranks websites based on how many other sites link to them, on the belief that sites that get more links are more trustworthy and useful. But Google also regularly tweaks its formulas to reflect special circumstances.
In this case, sites with high numbers of copyright-removal notices may get bumped down in rankings. In effect, that will help users find legitimate sources of content without removing any pages from its results completely. Google did not elaborate on what it considers to be valid notices.
Google's icy relationship with content creators has thawed slightly.
Last month, Google said it would offer a US$50 (S$62) -per-month TV package over a super-fast fiber network in a Kansas City test bed. The package would offer mainstream channels including Nickelodeon.
Google, which is based in Mountain View, California, also sells movies and music through its Google Play store on mobile devices that use its Android operating system.
But a US$1 billion copyright lawsuit filed by Viacom against Google's YouTube in 2007 was re-instated by a federal appeals court in April after a lower court threw it out.
And last week, court papers showed that the Authors Guild is demanding Google pay US$750 for each of the 20 million books it has scanned in a 7-year-old case. AP
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