The heads of the global recording industry have traveled to Brussels to meet with EU Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, to emphasize the piracy and market access problems faced by the music companies in China.
The meeting comes ahead of the EU-China Summit in Beijing on 28th November, where online piracy will be on the agenda. European record companies see potential in China, but its market was worth only €56 million in trade revenues last year.
The delegation meeting with the trade commissioner blame China's internet piracy, estimated at over 99 per cent of the overall digital market. "When the recording industry tries to defend its copyrights against online piracy in China, it is blocked by a combination of heavy procedural rules, woefully low levels of damages and injunctions too narrow to prevent ongoing infringement.
Chinese law has simply not kept pace with the explosion of online piracy," John Kennedy, CEO and Chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
The delegation includes Mike Batt, Chairman of Dramatico Entertainment; Tim Bowen, Chief Operating Officer, Sony BMG Music Entertainment; JF Cecillon, Chairman & CEO, EMI Music International; Max Hole, President, Asian Pacific Executive VP Marketing and A&R, Universal Music Group International; and John Kennedy, Chairman & CEO of IFPI.
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