Problem Solution Essay draft3

The widespread use of social media provide instant information to bring users more convenient lives. However, as social media platforms proliferate and there is a lack of legal control over the information transmitted, the chance for the unauthorized use of photographs and written materials increases. Copyright infringement became a severe problem in China and the misuse of advertising photos on shopping websites is becoming a common phenomenon. Many shop sellers are using others’ photos to advertise their own products. Taobao, the biggest shopping website in China, has most series copyright infringement problem. Although reporting system has been implemented by Taobao, to prevent photo infringement, use of unauthorized materials continues to lead to false advertising, which has never ended.

As photo infringement had become a severe problem in China, IRP Team (Intellectual Property) of Taobao and SAIC (State Administration of Industry and Commerce of the people’s Republic of China) should implemented some policies to solve this problem.

 

 

Proliferation of advanced social media such as Weibo and shopping website enhance the large amount of photos being exposed and shared on Internet, which encourages sellers to use unauthorized photos from those platforms. Most illegal sellers get infringing photos, especially from Weibo, as it shows high resolution photos. According to a report (Tong, 2015), Taobao has often been criticized for offering counterfeit products and has allowed merchants to sell these products without the brand’s authorization. Large numbers of Taobao sellers post photos of products which are manufactured by other shops, or advertise their own products by using other shops’ brands to attract more customers. SAIC released a report that claimed that 10.6% of products sold on major Chinese websites on the Single's Day online shopping holiday were not legitimate products from authorized dealers (Tong, 2015). This shows that the advanced social media has worsened the problem of copyright infringement and resulted in false advertisement.

 

One solution that Taobao has implemented to deal with the problem is the IRT Protection System. An online reporting system allows shoppers and shop holders to report sellers who are using unauthorised photos to sell counterfeit goods. However, the online reporting system has not been successful as the reporter has to provide series of original photos of products to prove their ownership; the maximum size for uploaded photos is only 5MB. Numerous reporters are complaining that they could only upload compressed photos which look not much different from the photos being stolen. In many cases, it is difficult for officers to differentiate between the original photos and copyright-infringing photos. It shows that the requirements for reporters to report unauthorized photos is contradict the reporting system itself. It seems impossible for reporters to provide compressed photos with low resolution to demonstrate their ownership, and it is also the reason why many officers were failed on their investigation. The inefficient measurements explain why the false advertising is still rampant in China now.

 

To deal with this problem in more efficient way, a more efficient reporting system in Taobao should be developed. Firstly, the IRP Protection System should increase more ways for people to provide information and evidence during reporting process. According to List Of Ten Best Online Shopping Website, Amazon is the top online retailer with the largest sales in the world (John, 2013).It putting more effort in resisting infringing photos through more complete and sophisticated reporting system to prevent counterfeit products from being sold. Amazon allows photos to be uploaded in forms of links if the image size is too big, and maximum fifty products can be reported at the same time. It helps sellers to provide evidence efficiently, and have higher chance to succeed in reporting. Secondly, more details should be required from a reporter when reporting. In the case of Taobao, the ownership of products and photos, especially between producers and agents, is always difficult to be identified. Moreover, as it is common for sellers and agents to advertise their products by posting photos on various platforms, original producers or brands are hardly being traced and recognised. Therefore, the reporting list should include detail information such as name of producers and company, as well as personal information of shop owner and staff who participate in the production of products and photos. As more information is provided, progress for investigation and report auditing may not be so time- consuming.  

 

 

Apart from the development of reporting system, SAIC should play an important role in supervising the operation of Taobao. As mentioned before, Taobao’s reporting system has to be developed to increase the efficiency of resisting infringing photos. There is also a penalty system to alert and penalize sellers who use unauthorized photos. Their shops will be removed from search list for few months or even permanently. However, it will only succeed if IRT Team is fulfilling their obligation. Liang has reported that corruption between sellers and IRT officers have become common phenomena in Taobao (Liang, 2012). Officers who accepted bribes help illegal sellers to remove report towards them so those sellers can continue using infringing photos. It shows that the collusion between shop owners and officers is one of the main problem of false advertisement and photo infringement in Taobao. Any anti-copyright infringement policies may not work effectively if corrupted officers participate in IRP Team. 

 

In order to prevent the operation of system being disturb by the dishonest officers, SAIC have to increase pressure on Taobao to supervise IRT Team by enhance relevant law. The criminal penalties to corruption should be implemented strictly by Taobao managers to control their officers. In 2012, under the pressure of SAIC, nine Taobao stores have closed down and permanently barred from the Internet shopping platform after they allegedly bribed Taobao employees for illegal gains (China Dairy, 2012). This demonstrates that the surveillance of SAIC and the participation of Taobao managers are essential in fighting with copyright infringement. The implement of punishment to corruptive employees will also have deterrence effect on Taobao officers to prevent further corruption in future.

 

In conclusion, the proliferation of social media has encouraged the misuse of unauthorized photos and further has led to the false advertising. The inefficiency of IRP Protection System and corruption among Taobao employee allows photo infringement continue to occur rampantly in Taobao. Therefore, development of a reporting system is essential to resist infringing photos. Likewise, SAIC has responsibility to ensure that the reporting system can be functioned effectively by supervise the IRP Team under Taobao.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference

 

Tong,F.(2015). Alibaba disputes a Chinese government report that it sells phony goods. Internet Retailer. Retrieved from https://www.internetretailer.com/2015/01/28/alibaba-defends-itself-reports-it-sells-phony-goods

 

List of 10 Best Online Shopping Sites in the World (2013, November 30). Times News. Retrieved from http://www.timesnews.co.uk/974-list-of-10-best-online-shopping-sites-in-the-world/

 

9 Taoba stores shut for bribery. (2012, May, 5).ChinaDairy. Retrieved from http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2012-05/05/content_15217581.htm