China's Invisible Copyright Economy Runs Through Daily Life

The Copyright Trail Runs Through Everyday China

A new CGTN documentary asks a deceptively simple question: how many copyrighted works did you encounter today? The answer, as the network's reporters demonstrate by walking through cafes, livestreams, gyms and even the world of Black Myth: Wukong, is far more than most people realize. Published on August 16, 2026, "What is the least visible thing in your daily life?" follows the invisible trail of copyright through ordinary Chinese life, asking lawyers, musicians and creators the questions most audiences never think to ask. The timing is deliberate: Beijing is pressing a quiet but steady campaign to strengthen copyright protection at home and to export its enforcement model abroad, and the documentary arrives as that strategy moves into a new phase.

Tags: copyright, China copyright industry, creative economy, intellectual property, Black Myth Wukong, livestreaming, music licensing, NCAC, WIPO, copyright cooperation

A 10-Trillion-Yuan Industry in the Background

The economic stakes behind the documentary are substantial. Research conducted by the China Academy of Press and Publication under the guidance of the National Copyright Administration (NCAC) found that China's copyright industry generated an added value of 10.06 trillion yuan (about US$1.38 trillion) in 2024, an increase of 7.31 percent from the previous year and equivalent to 7.46 percent of the country's GDP. Core copyright sectors, including film, television and software, reached 6.37 trillion yuan in value, up 7.43 percent year on year. The industry employed more than 15.89 million people in urban areas, representing 9.63 percent of total urban employment, according to the same report.

The scale marks a transformation from three decades ago, when China's first Copyright Law took effect in 1991. The law has been amended three times since, in 2001, 2010 and 2020, and the government issued its Outline for Building a Powerful Intellectual Property Nation in 2021, setting goals for copyright protection through 2035. The NCAC has said it plans to release its next five-year copyright plan in 2026, which will shape how the sector evolves for the rest of the decade.

From Cafes to Livestreams: The Invisible Trail

The documentary's central observation is that copyright has become an ambient feature of Chinese daily life. Background music in a coffee shop, a song played during a livestream, a video clip shown on a gym screen, and the characters and art of a video game are all copyrighted works in constant commercial use. The enforcement apparatus behind them has grown steadily since the NCAC, together with the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Public Security, launched the "Jianwang" (Sword Net) campaign in 2005 to combat online copyright infringement and piracy.

Those campaigns brought measurable progress against online piracy, but they also consolidated power in the hands of streaming platforms and music companies. The documentary's interviews with creators reflect a familiar tension: protection has improved, yet the people who make the works still struggle to capture the value they generate. As one of the documentary's messages puts it, copyright is not only about protecting works but about making sure the people behind them are seen.

Music's Licensing Battles Reach the High Court

Nowhere is that tension sharper than in music. China's recorded music market is ranked fifth among the world's top ten markets, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), which operates QQ Music, Kugou Music, Kuwo Music and WeSing, has controlled more than 70 percent of China's music streaming market even after regulators ordered it to terminate exclusive licensing agreements with upstream copyright owners in 2021.

The competitive pressure has spilled into the courts. NetEase filed an antitrust lawsuit against Tencent and its music and entertainment arms, alleging abuse of market dominance through technical barriers, copyright monopolization and control of user data. The case was accepted by the Zhejiang Higher People's Court in 2024, and its high-court setting has led legal experts to suggest NetEase is seeking compensation exceeding 100 million yuan (about US$13.9 million). Regulators have also intensified scrutiny of the global labels: the State Administration for Market Regulation has examined whether Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group are imposing excessive royalties and unfair trading terms on Chinese streaming platforms.

Beijing's Quiet Copyright Diplomacy

While the domestic battles play out, Beijing has been expanding its international copyright footprint. On July 10, 2026, the NCAC and the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property signed a memorandum of understanding on copyright and related rights cooperation in Geneva. Under the agreement, the two sides will regularly exchange legal and technical information, encourage exchanges between copyright officials and professionals through visits and training programs, and promote cooperation between copyright collective management organizations. Chinese officials described the memorandum as a model and catalyst for expanding copyright collaboration with Arab nations.

The Saudi deal follows a pattern of similar agreements. China and the United Kingdom renewed and updated their copyright cooperation memorandum in July 2025, building on the original 2010 agreement, and Chinese authorities have signed copyright MOUs with Cambodia and Indonesia in recent years. The effect is a widening network of bilateral arrangements that positions the NCAC as an active player in global copyright governance, often in parallel with its participation in WIPO.

What Japan's Content Economy Teaches China

For Japanese readers, China's copyright push invites comparison with Japan's own experience. Japan's content industries, anchored by anime, manga and video games, have long been among the most copyright-intensive creative sectors in the world, and Japanese rights holders spent years fighting unauthorized distribution of their works overseas, including in China. The evolution is now visible in both directions: Chinese platforms license Japanese anime for streaming, while China's own intellectual property has begun to travel abroad, most prominently with Black Myth: Wukong, the action role-playing game based on the classic novel Journey to the West that demonstrated the global commercial potential of Chinese game IP.

The structural contrast is instructive. Japan's mature collective management system, centered on organizations such as JASRAC for music, gives creators a comparatively established channel for royalty collection. China's system is still consolidating, and the documentary's interviews highlight that musicians and small creators remain the least protected links in the chain. As Beijing deepens its copyright cooperation with partners from Riyadh to London, the domestic distribution question, how streaming platforms and collective management organizations translate protection into creator income, will determine whether the industry's growth benefits the people who produce the works.

What to Watch For

Three developments bear watching in the coming months. First, the NCAC's next five-year copyright plan, expected in 2026, will signal how aggressively Beijing intends to pursue enforcement and collective management reform. Second, the outcome of the NetEase-Tencent antitrust case could reshape the balance of power in China's music market and set a precedent for platform behavior across the creative economy. Third, WIPO officials, including Deputy Director General Wang Binying, have warned that artificial intelligence is opening new copyright questions around training data and the legal status of AI-generated content, an issue on which China, Japan and the major content markets will need to coordinate.

The documentary's closing message is a reminder of what is at stake: copyright is about making sure the people behind the works are seen. For a country whose creative industries now contribute more than 7 percent of GDP, that is no longer a niche legal concern but a core economic one. As China and Japan both navigate the transition from analog protection to an AI-driven content economy, the choices made in the next year will shape who benefits from the invisible trail of rights that runs through every cafe, livestream and game session.

By Kenji Tanaka, Staff Writer

This article was produced with AI-assisted research and editorial support. Reporting is based on sources cited in the article.