I attended a mini-conference in Hangzhou Monday held by local company Vobile to discuss media rights management in China and Vobile’s partnerships with NBC Universal (an investor in Vobile, along with AT&T and Disney affiliate Steamboat Ventures) and CCTV International (CCTV.com).

Hangzhou-based Vobile has developed video fingerprinting technology that can be used to track and filter video content online. A natural use for their technology is to check for pirated content on user-generated video sites. Video is run through Vobile’s system, and if it matches copyrighted content in Vobile’s database, it will be red-flagged. Vobile’s technology has been recognized as some of the best in the field. (It's awesome that some of the leading work on copyright protection technology in the world is coming from a Chinese startup).

Vobile is looking to help content owners track and protect their content online, though apart from implementation fellow Hangzhou startup Pomoho, a video sharing site, there have been no announcements of other roll-outs of Vobile technology. The partnership with CCTV.com is focused on protecting video content for the Beijing Olympics. CCTV.com won the live online broadcast rights to the Olympics in December. (Interesting side-note: CCTV International’s CEO said at the conference that one of the main characteristics of the Internet in China was piracy; it was nice to hear him tell it like it is.) While no specifics were offered on how CCTV.com would be using Vobile’s services, it is a high-profile ally for Vobile.

More interesting than the partnerships, perhaps, is anti-piracy and intellectual property rights protection continues to gain steam in China. NBC Universal vice president Sheau Ng said at the conference that whoever is being hurt by piracy will the one protesting. Many people have said that China will start to really do something about piracy once it starts hurting Chinese companies. CCTV obviously has an interest in protecting its content online, as do China’s other media companies. Ng mentioned that China, because its media industry is less mature and thus less stuck in its ways, is in a unique position to help define the terms and business models of the new era of the Internet.

With the focus on anti-piracy, there was also discussion about how you can’t ultimately eliminate piracy, and that new business models need to be developed that make providing legal, authorized content a viable online business.