China Shuts down Major P2P Servcies

Last brilliant idea from Chinese government regarding Internet development was the Green Dam filter software, and this time is the massive shutdown of P2P services based file share websites, such as VeryCD.com and BTChina. The officials who issue the notification are the infamously well-known SARFT and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). According to them, these websites have to be shut down because they don’t own the “Information Network Broadcast Audio Visual Programming Permission Certificate".

• From the BTChina website: (BTCHINA was notified by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) that because of the absence of audio-visual broadcasting license, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of PRC is to delete our record number and shut down the site. As for my personal safety, once again to prove rumors on the internet are untrustworthy, especially the news is the most unreliable, translated by Chinahush)

Initially, I doubt that it was the pressure from copyright holders oversea so the government has to take some action and these small websites become targets due to their huge popularity like the Pirate Bay case. Yet, after reading SARFT's regulation and blogger analysis, I realize this is not simply because of copyright infringement and censorship, it is still the question about who control the Internet content in the coming years. The SARFT definitely want to demonstrate their authority by then end of another year challenged by growing Internet activists.

This decision reveals the conflict of interests between two government departments the SARFT and MIIT. The popularity of these video sharing websites in some way humiliates SARFT since most of them promote cultural products from other countries, and SARFT want to defend their territory and control these websites as they do in traditional media. Yet, because these websites are not authorized by them but by MIIT, so SARFT has to compete with the clout of MIIT . This time, it is SARFT’s regulation forces MIIT to withdraw those websites’ licenses. As some bloggers have noticed, SARFT and MITT’s conflicts can be traced back to the development of IPTV and mobile television, anything between the media content and information technology. Two departments have not decided the disciplines and those service providers will be suffered because of these changing regulations.

I think fundamentally it is SARFT’s fear of lose the grip of media control that drives this shut down. According to government website (Chinese), the website should be state owned or state funded in order to be eligible for the Internet program permission certificate. Chances are rare that those fans organized private P2P share websites could meet this qualification. Therefore, it becomes clear that SARFT still wants to control Internet content especially as they see the threat of growing video streaming and video sharing business. Essentially, the crackdown of P2P share websites is another attempt to against the decentralized Internet trend.

References:

1. China shuts down BitTorrent websites (ChinaHush)
2. VeryCD.com may be closed for not having a license (Danwei)
3. State Funded Business Advances and Private Owned Business Retreats: recent regulations of online content influences the future of video business (Chinese)