Proprietary control in cyberspace: three moments of copyright growth in China

Abstract

Drawing on critical research on the political economy of the media and intellectual property rights (IPR), this research examines copyright growth in China’s digital media. It sees copyright development as the creation of private cultural property, an ongoing process and part of China’s media marketization and the globalization of IPR. It focuses on three critical moments in the creation of digital copyright: the invention of ground rules by state organs, a bottom-up challenge to copyright control, and the correlated development between law and business agendas. It argues that digital copyright is part of China’s market-oriented reform, West-looking legal transplantation, elite-driven policymaking, and business-friendly Internet governance. The law and its implementation manifest the ascendance of proprietary cultural control in Chinese cyberspace, which needs to be assessed historically and critically.