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Digital
Chinese file-sharing service blocks unlicensed content
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 26 January 2011
A file-sharing service in China last weekend blocked the transfer of music and movies over its networks, instead pointing users to licensed content. Bosses at VeryCD, one of China’s most popular file-sharing websites, were seemingly responding to increased pressure from the Chinese authorities who are known to have stepped up their anti-piracy agenda in recent months. In particular, the country’s Ministry Of Public Security recently published a detailed list of penalties for online copyright infringement, which included up to seven years in jail for more prolific offenders.
Huang Yimeng, who founded the file-sharing site in 2003, didn’t sound especially pleased with the development. According to Torrentfreak, he posted on the VeryCD blog: “Seven years of hard work and accumulation, that will now shut off, the end is the end. No one wanted this, but we had expected this moment would suddenly come. Now all we can do is face the reality with courage. We must never give up – 2011 is our new starting point. Work! Hard!”
Yimeng admitted that while he and his team had been preparing to respond to a crackdown on copyright infringement in China for some time, and had been considering reinventing their service as a legitimate content provider, in the end the need to act came much quicker than they anticipated. He said: “Although we have been preparing for this event, the required adjustment was very urgent. This led us to adjust rather quickly to delete the content of copyright-related disputes”.
Despite the plans for relaunching VeryCD as a legit content platform, the speed with which the file-sharing network came to a halt on Friday is likely to see a majority of its users move over to rival, probably illegal services.
