I had previously blogged on the 2014 top 10 cases of the copyright-oriented “Sword Network” or “Sword” Campaign.  On July 8, the National Copyright Administration announced that a top priority for the balance of this year for this year’s campaign will be music piracy.   Oddly, this focus on music piracy, had already been announced in January of this year. Music was also a focus for the WIPO’s World IP Day this year.

According to the announcement of the National Copyright Administration, unlicensed online music providers must stop providing this content by July 31 (Chinese announcement, English article). The announcement does not specify any new policies or additional enforcement mechanisms, but rather appears to be a prioritization of NCA’s efforts going forward.

There was some improvement of audiovisual works through similar campaign efforts recently. However, music – which invariably includes many more titles, with smaller size files, that are likely to be listened to many times and via different platforms–arguably presents a more challenging enforcement environment than movies.