Every cultural department (bureau) of province, autonomous region and municipality directly under the Central Government, cultural bureau of formation of production and construction of Xinjiang:

Ministry of Culture promulgated "the temporary regulation about the administration of culture of Internet" (hereafter referred to as " the regulation ") on May 10, 2003. In the regulation Ministry of Culture makes it clear about the management of the network culture products and its operation activities, and demands that the imported net game and its operation should be submitted to Ministry of Culture to make content censored.

In February 17, 2004,the document "General Office of the State Council transmits the notices to the department as Ministry of Culture etc. on launching the special renovation suggestions of the place of Internet service business"（Guo ban fa No.19 [2004] ）stipulates, "To the unit who was engaged in Internet's culture business activities, such as providing the net game, audio & visual product, performing drama (program), work of art, cartoon. Without the permission and authorization of Ministry of Culture, its business activity should be banned by the cultural administrative department according to "The method of censoring and banning illegal business" . To the units who propagated the above-mentioned imported cultural products of Internet without the content censored by the Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Culture would investigate, prosecute and ban on them, with the cooperation of the Ministry of Information Industry according as the law.

"The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the State Council's several suggestions on strengthening and improving further the minor's construction of morals and thought " (zhong fa No. 8［2004］) point out again," Examining the content of the game software which faces to minors strictly, investigating and prosecuting the game software product which contains the harmful content of bring out minor's criminal offence or has the content of terror, brutality etc. We should strictly enforce the import standard of minor's spiritual cultural product, strictly strength the import control. Not only should we introduce and import the outstanding cultural product all over the world selectively, but also we must prevent from the invasion of external harmful culture".

In order to carry out the above regulation further, we now notify the relevant questions as followed:

First, Any foreign net game product propagated online or by mobile within the territory of the People's Republic of China, could be put into operation after the content has been censored by Ministry of Culture.

Second, Ministry of Culture has established imported game products content censor committee (hereafter referred to as " censor committee"), responsible for censoring the content of the imported net game products. Censor committee has its own office, which is responsible for routine of content censored of the imported net game products.

Third, the operating unit who apply for importing the net game products should take " network culture business license " that Ministry of Culture authorized.

Fourth, the operational cultural unit of Internet should carry on strictly verifying to the network game products content of planning to import in accordance with relevant State regulations.

Fifth, after the products has been verified not having violated content of illegality, the operational cultural unit of Internet should put forward the application of reporting to a higher authorities for approval to Ministry of Culture, and send the following material:

(1) Examine the blue form return in imported network game products content of Ministry of Culture (see affix 1) and Imported network game products material registration form of Ministry of Culture (see affix 2);

(2) Theme of the products and content manual;

(3) Production manipulation description (Chinese and foreign text);

(4) Three products sample (Chinese and foreign text, including net game software client program, regard CD-ROM or DVD CD as media) , and offer the log-in account number and password, this account number should possess supreme administration authority (or the supreme rank user of the game);

(5) All of the game dialogue, asides, describing words and the lyrics texts of the theme song and the episode (Chinese and foreign text);

(6) Copyright trade agreement or agent agreement of the products (Chinese and foreign text), original copyright certification, the duplicate or the copy of authorization of copyright;

(7) Hierarchical appraisal or relevant identifications of the products by the export country or area;

(8) " Network culture business license " and " business license " copies of the applying unit;

(9) Verifying the result by oneself (including the relevant explanation that perhaps the dispute content exists);

(10) Other files needed in content censored.

Sixth, forbidding the nonexclusive license game products imported.

The copyright trade or agent agreement of the game products must accord with " contract law ", " copyright law "and other relevant regulations of laws and regulations of our country, and have no apparently off-candid clause. Only after the sanctioning in Ministry of Culture, these agreements can come into effect.

Seventh, Once Ministry of Culture received the application of the content censored of imported net game products, the censor committee would exam the imported game products, and put forward the first trial suggestion; When the first trial is eligible, it could be permitted to public examine. Within 30 days after beginning of public examine, the content of article17 of the " regulation " and the e-mail address of censor committee office must be published on public examine homepage. According to the examination content reported by the censor committee and the public examining result, Ministry of Culture would make of the examination board, make sanctioning or decision which the department sanctions, When sanctioned, the department issued and sanctioned the file, the product can be put into operation formally; when did not sanction, the department should give reasons.

According to the examination report and the public examination result, the products needed revisal, it should be revised in time, otherwise it would be refused to sanction.

Eighth, the imported net game products approved by Ministry of Culture should show the authentication code of Ministry of Culture in their obvious positions, can't alter its the program name, or add or delete the content of the program without authorization. It must use the approved Chinese program name (foreign language name can be indicated in the bracket).
Once the patch or revision of the approved running net game product causes the essence content changes, it should also be submitted to Ministry of Culture for content censor.

Have not run, spread and circulated in domestic for one year from date of approval, the imported unit should submit to Ministry of Culture for record and state the reason; Once the firm determined to terminate import, Ministry of Culture would cancel its imported authentication code.

Ninth, the units who import and run the net game products should strengthen the management, preventing the contents that " regulation " forbids from running. Import, reason of unit of operation, is it forbid content to produce, import, the unit of operation should be to forbidding the content to delete dealing with immediately, the important problem backs up and combines reporting to Ministry of Culture in time.

Tenth, the units who import net game products from China Hongkong, Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan district should go through the relevant formality according to the censoring procedure of foreign net game product.

Eleventh, the units who have already run the imported net game products and now are still running so far formally at home before this notice is issued, should report to Ministry of Culture to make up content censor formality at the request of this notice before September 1st, 2004. Any unit that has not reported over duly to a higher authorities for approval will be investigated and dealt with according to law according to propagating the imported net game products without authorization.

Twelfth, domestic net game product development and operation unit should be carried on game product development and manage according to national regulation and relevant requirement of this notice. The domestic net game products should also be submitted to our department for record before September 1st, 2004, obtain the record code, and indicate it in this net game products homepage. Investigated and dealt with according to law by the cultural administrative departments at all levels to the one that violate national regulation.

It is hereby announced.

Affix:
1. Examining the blue form return in imported network game products content of Ministry of Culture
2. Imported net game products material registration form of Ministry of Culture

May 14th, 2004