China is a colossus when it comes to illegal music sales -- China's music piracy
rate is 90%, or close to US$600 million, and only a fraction of music downloads
are legitimate. In an innovative move,
the Chinese government and Universal Music Publishing have partnered with R2G,
a Chinese licensing and distribution company, to address digital music piracy.
R2G obtains licensed digital content, including mobile products such as
ringtones, from content providers and distributes it to legitimate download
sites. Now, Universal is granting R2G the right to distribute and monitor the
music on its labels. R2G combs through major portals and search engines in China
to uncover instances of copyright violations. The company also monitors download
statistics and royalties due to the copyright holders. R2G's anti-piracy
measures have already received backing from government bodies like the Copyright
Society of China and the Copyright Protection Center of China.
Universal's move suggests that litigation is not the only solution to illegal
music downloading, and the partnership may set a precedent for fighting the
rampant music piracy in countries such as Russia and Mexico. First, the
agreement acts as a deterrence - already, major Chinese websites have taken down
unlicensed digital content. Second, the high-tech monitoring system is a means
to overcome the weak intellectual property protection in countries such as
China. Finally, the deal enables a legitimate digital-music marketplace,
providing more content to consumers as well as fair compensation to writers and
publishers.