Netmovie Founder Elaborates on Copyright Royalty Plan
National Business Daily, 4/30/10
Li Feng, founder and president of Beijing-based digital video distributor Netmovie, said that the company's ""Domestic Movie Internet Café Digital Distribution Platform" project, undertaken in partnership with the Film Copyright Society of China, will launch on May 15. The new platform will charge screening fees for films made available in internet cafes and long-distance buses, and will have trial sites in 31 provinces, regions, and municipalities.
An industry source said that the Film Copyright Society of China had reached a consensus on screening fees after three years of market research on factors including daily internet café usage and average time spent viewing premium content by netizens at different points throughout the day. The cost, per computer per day, has been set as 7.5% of regional internet access fees, the source said. In Beijing, for example, where internet cafes charge RMB 3 per hour for internet access, the screening fees will be RMB 0.225 per computer per day.
When asked about how revenues would be distributed, Li said that after deducting the Film Copyright Society of China's management fees, revenues would be divided by the number of requests logged in the system to calculate a per-click price.
When contacted, many copyright holders, internet cafes, and long-distance bus companies said they had yet to receive any notification of the new system.
Editor's Note: For more background on this topic, please see "New China Film Copyright Society to Collect Royalties" MD 4/20/10 issue.
Keywords: online video Li Feng Internet royalty Netmovie Film Copyright Society of China Internet cafe