China vows to crack down on NFT copyright infringement as regulatory scrutiny rises
- The campaign targets offences involving NFTs based on art, cartoons, music, video games, films and TV shows, the copyright authority said
- Many Chinese companies have already scaled back their NFT operations, as regulatory uncertainties mount and public interest subsides
The National Copyright Administration (NCA) would sternly crack down on offences, such as the minting of NFTs or digital collectibles based on other people’s work without authorisation, the regulator said in a statement.
Such work may involve art, cartoons, music, video games, films and television shows, the NCA said.
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The move is part of a two-month campaign aimed at bringing copyright infringement under control, which was jointly launched by the NCA, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Public Security Bureau and the Cyberspace Administration of China.
The initiative also targets copyright issues in other fields, such as short videos and online literature, the NCA said.
After exploding into global mainstream awareness last year, NFTs have drawn wide attention in China. The virtual assets are often referred to as digital collectibles in the country to avoid any perceived association with cryptocurrencies, which have been officially banned from being traded since last year after a long-standing crackdown.
To appease authorities, who have warned against speculative risks in the NFT market, most platforms in China price digital collectibles in yuan instead of cryptocurrencies. Secondary trading is also widely prohibited.
Still, some Chinese buyers have managed to trade digital collectibles outside official platforms. Common problems plaguing the largely unregulated global NFT market, such as scams, thefts and copyright infringement are also prevalent in China.
The court decided that the marketplace NFTCN should be held accountable for facilitating the sale of a cartoon picture without the creator’s permission, which infringed on the artwork owner’s “right to disseminate works through information networks”.
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Many Chinese companies have already scaled back their NFT operations, as regulatory uncertainties mount and public interest subsides after the initial excitement last year.
