China Eases Control Over Existing Web Sites

CHINA EASES CONTROL OVER EXISTING WEB SITES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Loretta Chao loretta.chao@wsj.com]
China's government said new rules requiring online-video companies to be state-controlled don't apply to already-established Web sites, offering hope to privately owned Chinese start-ups whose fate had seemed threatened by the regulations. A statement from China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the Ministry of Information Industry clarifies rules announced in late December by the same two agencies that appeared to require all video-streaming Web sites to be owned or controlled by an arm of the state. Those rules took effect at the end of last month. The new statement, issued Sunday, still appears to block the way for new private video-streaming companies that want to operate in China, including foreign companies such as Google Inc.'s YouTube that aren't here now. But it also suggests limits to regulators' willingness to tighten the reins too much on one of the fastest-growing sectors of the Internet. That follows other examples where announcements of sweeping new regulation affecting technology have been followed by less-sweeping enforcement.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120221774207644073.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
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* China defends new Web video and audio rules
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSPEK16892420080206