From Financial Times:
China’s culture ministry has ordered local internet companies to apply for approval from government censors for any foreign music they make available online and to prove they own all necessary distribution rights.
The new rules from the Ministry of Culture mark the latest in a series of moves by Beijing to tighten control over the internet which has in the past been less tightly regulated than other media sectors.
The rules, which were issued last month but posted on the ministry’s website only this week, are intended in part to crack down on rampant internet music piracy.[Full Text]