Mash-up Makers, Beware of China

A word to online satirists and mash-up-makers: Be thankful you don't live in China. While copyright infringement is a slippery issue here in the U.S. -- with many media-makers employing the legal doctrine of "fair use" to defend their right to parody Mel Gibson or Brokeback Mountain -- the Chinese government is cracking down on spoofs.

The hubbub began earlier this year when Hu Ge, a 31-year-old Shanghai editor, posted a 20-minute short mash-up of Chinese filmmaker Chen Kaige's epic The Promise called "The Bloody Case That Started from a Steam Bun." While the movie states clearly that it was made purely for the "personal entertainment" of its maker, millions saw it and laughed so loud that China's State Administration for Radio, Film and Television is now outlawing Internet broadcasts that satirize officially approved cultural products, according to the Beijing News. (After much searching and several dead-ends, I finally found the actual movie on YouTube here -- but it won't make much sense unless you understand Chinese.)

The state organization will launch "a severe attack on rule violations across the entire sector," according to the Beijing News, and establish an advanced "monitoring system" to target offenders.

To keep the Internet free, the Philadelphia Inquirer's Chris Mondics reportsthat New Jersey Republican Christopher H. Smith is introducing the "Global Internet Freedom Act" to keep Internet companies and foreign governments from colluding to squelch dissent. Though I doubt Rep. Smith is too concerned with protecting something like this.