Global Copyright Protest? A Comparison of DeCSS Posting in the People´s Republic of China, Hong Kong, and the European Union

This study explored the differences in DeCSS posting between EU member nations, the PRC, and Hong Kong. In particular, it sought to investigate the degree to which website authors in the EU, the PRC, and Hong Kong used DeCSS to protest changes in copyright law brought about by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Internet Treaties. Data were drawn from a country-restrict based sample of websites from the Google index in Spring 2004 and content analysis was conducted on each website. Results found little evidence of protest posting in PRC, some evidence in Hong Kong, and substantial evidence in the EU. Taken as a whole, the results do not provide strong evidence of global posting of DeCSS on websites in order to protest changes to copyright law. Rather, results suggest the value and meaning of DeCSS varies across different nations.