How a startup help protect digital copyrights
- By Guan Weiwei
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E-mail China.org.cn, December 5, 2016
Copyright protection of digital contents can be a headache for many authors and artists. A 2-year-old startup in Beijing is trying to help them license and gain money from their work.
"It used to be very complicated for designers and photographers to get their copyright registered. They usually had to go on weekdays and spend a lot of time and money to have the process completed," said Zhao Yong, founder and CEO of Mypian, an online copyright service.
"Through mypian.com, authors can get their visual works registered. That includes photographs, paintings, VR works and videos," Zhao said.
A certificate can be very helpful in a copyright dispute. Zhao said when a female artist's photographic works were pirated as mobile phone covers, she was required to show her proof of copyright. She tried to apply for copyright registration on Mypian and got the copyright certificate in 5 days.
"Her post about the experience was reposted thousands of times on Weibo, China's Twitter, and many netizens said that the online copyright service is exactly what they need."
Government support
In 2014, China issued the National Intellectual Property Rights Strategy (2014-2020), highlighting goals and measures for IPR generation, use, protection and management.
In 2015 there were 134 million items copyrighted in China, up by 36% from 2014.
On June 16, 2015, the State Council issued a statement laying out specific measures to support mass entrepreneurship and innovation. These include innovating mechanisms to facilitate startups, optimizing financial and tax policies, increasing investments and providing services for startup companies.
"The government's encouraging policy for entrepreneurship and innovation regards the national innovation development strategy, and the government has given a lot of support. For example, our office here provides free rent through the enterprise incubator T3 Innovation," Zhao said.
"This is very important for a startup entrepreneur. This incubator has many startups like us, including our clients, and allows us to do business without leaving the building," he said.
"Furthermore, the government has set up special funds for startup companies and established industrial unions to help startups accelerate their integration into the market and target their clients." he added.
Persistence
Zhao was the vice president of a steel company before his startup, but left his position, salary, and stocks to pursue his dream. He even declined another salary offer of over one million RMB.
He founded his company in November, 2015.
"It was completely out of my imagination that a great product would ever find difficulties getting an investment." He said.
In October 2016, Zhao's company was confronted with financial problems and had to downsize its staff.
"Many times I lock myself in a room and think about what to do next." He said. "The answer was always persistence."
Zhao got 40,000 registered items this year by working with a platform that already had many registered designers and photographers. Mypian's next step is to get 1,000,000 items, which is two times the overall registered visual works in China in 2015.
"Starting a business is innovation." Zhao said. "We are practicing innovation in a much more independent way. Even though there will be many difficulties and challenges, I believe that if we keep moving forward, we will gain success."
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