Leading Chinese Download Site Top100.cn Responds To Government Crackdown
EXCLUSIVE: In a statement issued exclusively to Hypebot, Gary Chen the CEO of leading Chinese download service Top100.cn responded optimistically to new censorship rules imposed by the Ministry Of Culture. We publish his remarks unedited:
"Overall I think it is a positive move. Online music market in China need to be regulated. Online music piracy is a huge problem in China. The big search engine companies no matter Chinese firm 
and international firm like Yahoo are doing illegal search and download here in China. The illegal mp3 search and download per day is roughly 60 million. Ministry of Culture has not involved much in this area for past ten years. Now, it is natural for them to have saying in this area because they have been doing censorship for physical music products in China."
"However, they have not publishes the detailed execution plan yet. For an example, with very limited man power, how can you censor vast number of songs in internet world ? We are talking about millions of songs and lyrics and copyright owner authorization. And another concern is about timing. If legal online business would spend one month to get IFPI authentification of copyrights and then go through Ministry of Culture censorship, then piracy business will definitely beat legit business in China again."
"As the largest legit digital music company, we are communicating with major labels and Ministry of Culture heavily now on these issues. We all believe that it is very possible that Ministry of Culture’s new regulation and future detailed execution plan will help legit business to grow and benefit. And 
that is one of the major ways to fight piracy."
"There is one part in it about restriction of foreign companies selling music online and in mobile sphere. That happened also because certain international company use double standard (legal business in America; illegal search and download in China) in Chinese market and make government agency and value chain disappointed and lose confidence in them. On the contrary, four China government owned telecom operators(China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom and China Netcom) are very very strict with copyrights in their platforms now. for an example, you must provide copyrights contract to them if you want to provide any music services on their platform."
Just weeks ago Chen was touting a new deal for tens of thousands of indie tracks via The Orchard. At that time he told Hypebot, "This will be a great culture exchange project and people here will
gradually appreciate it. And Chinese government support such a project". Chen’s new statement attempts to put a positive spin on recent government actions, but it is also probable that Chen suspects that the same Ministry Of Culture that censor music also read blog posts.
Gary Chen has opportunistically used the occasion of a new statement by China’s Ministry of Culture to brazenly accuse other companies of copyright infringement when it has been documented by Billboard, New York Times and South China Morning Post that his top100.cn has itself been guilty of such a practice.
A number of his comments smack of hypocrisy and it becomes obvious that he is exhibiting traits of an opportunist political economist in his skewed approach to copyright and I would like to point them out in the interest of a balanced view for the uninitiated reader.
Hypocritical comment 1: “The big search engine companies no matter Chinese firm and international firm like Yahoo are doing illegal search and download here in China….There is one part in it about restriction of foreign companies selling music online and in mobile sphere. That happened also because certain international company use double standard (legal business in America; illegal search and download in China) in Chinese market and make government agency and value chain disappointed and lose confidence in them.” – Gary Chen
Hypocritical comment 2: In an interview with Hypebot on 30 Oct 2006, Gary stated “Plus, please help us to clarify one more time. We do not have Beatles for download in our website. Just log on our website and you will find Chinese introduction of all great musicians like Beatles. But when you click the track, it says clearly it is not available for download. It is totally legal to introduce any musician and tell a story about them. I do not understand why one or two international journalist say so in their article. Do they really care about the copyright protection in China and want to support a legit music service company like us in China ?”
http://hypebot.typepad.com/hypebot/2006/10/part_ii_of_qa_w.html
Fact: Beatles digital tracks have been available FOR SALE from top100.cn even as recently as this month (which I have bought as proof) – and OTHER content owners have also complained that their music has appeared illegally on top100.cn
Let’s be clear on this – as an entrepreneur he is to be lauded for his attempts to build an online music store in China and he is also entitled to cash in on the political economy of copyright but please spare us the moral lecture on intellectual property. He is absolutely right that there are major companies engaging in infringing activities in China that new rulings will hopefully put right, but since top100.cn is itself is engaging in ‘when in Rome…’ transgressions, he has totally lost the moral authority to comment on the subject.
People who live in glass houses should not throw stones
I can’t see how the new regulations announced by the Ministry of Culture have anything to do with fighting piracy. Instead, they seem to be strictly a censorship and protectionism tool, making it harder for foreign music to be legally offered in China. If anything, the regulations are likely to increase online piracy since, while creating time-consuming and costly additional roadblocks for companies trying to offer music legally, pirate operations aren’t going to comply with them in the first place.
The Chinese are perfectly capable of making music and developing a successful music industry without this type of protectionism.