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'Low' is a song that made U.S. rocker David Lowery famous. It's also a word the crooner would use to describe most musician's paychecks -- especially in China, where piracy issues are rampant.
歌曲《Low》让美国摇滚乐手洛厄里(David Lowery)一举成名，这首歌曲的名字也被这位歌手用来形容大多数音乐人的收入情况，在盗版现象猖獗的中国尤为如此。
But the frontman for the rock band Cracker, which topped U.S. charts during the 1990s and continues to tour, believes it's not too late to change that in China, where officials are drafting legislation to determine the future of copyright laws that could strengthen enforcement against piracy and ultimately boost revenue for musicians.
洛厄里是美国摇滚乐队Cracker的主唱，这支乐队曾在上世纪九十年代雄踞美国歌曲排行榜榜首，现在仍在继续巡演。洛厄里认为，现在改变中国音乐人的收入情况还不算太晚。中国官员目前正在起草将决定版权法律未来的立法，版权法能够加大打击盗版的执行力度，最终增加音乐人的收入。
Mr. Lowery toured China this week both to play shows and urge Chinese artists and officials to avoid the pitfalls that U.S. musicians have faced at home. The U.S. Embassy worked to bring Mr. Lowery to China to speak publicly on intellectual property rights, aiming to reach the ear of Chinese authorities drafting the new laws. The U.S. is also looking to protect the interest of U.S. businesses that sell goods in big consumer markets like China's. Piracy in China has largely undercut the U.S. film and music industry's business in the country.
洛厄里本周在中国进行了巡演，除了演出外，他还敦促中国的艺术家和官员避免陷入美国音乐人曾在本土陷入过的困境。洛厄里此次来华演出是由美国大使馆安排的，此次演出的目的是希望他能够公开讨论知识产权的问题，让正在起草新法律的中国当局听到这些意见。美国也在设法保护在中国等大型消费市场出售商品的美国企业的利益。中国的盗版问题对美国的电影及音乐行业在中国的发展造成了沉重打击。
The rocker's crusade for music rights first kicked off in 2012, when he posted a biting rebuttal to an essay by an NPR intern who wrote that she didn't believe she and her peers would ever pay for albums. In particular, Mr. Lowery has focused on the need to better compensate artists in an era of online music streaming, noting that while many sites offering such services are supported by ad revenue, few musicians ever get much of a cut. Since 2012, he's waged a mostly uphill fight to lobby U.S. officials to curb ad sales and halt payment flow to sites that make their money on pirated goods.
洛厄里最初从2012年开始倡导对保护音乐版权的保护。当时美国国家公共广播电台(NPR)的一名实习生在一篇文章中写道，她不认为自己以及同龄人会花钱购买音乐专辑。洛厄里撰文对此予以了强烈驳斥。洛厄里的关注重点是，在网络流媒体音乐时代，艺术家需要获得更多补偿。他指出，虽然许多提供流媒体音乐服务的网站靠广告收入支撑运营，但很少有音乐人能从中得到分成。从2012年开始，洛厄里掀起了一场艰难的斗争，他游说美国官员抑制那些靠盗版商品赚钱的网站的广告销售，并中止对这些网站的资金支付。
'Now's the time to talk about these issues in China,' Mr. Lowery said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal in Beijing. According to Mr. Lowery, music-makers around the world haven't been proactive enough about fighting illegal downloads online, nor have they successfully fought for more compensation from expanding music-streaming companies.
洛厄里在北京接受《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)采访时说，现在是时候讨论一下中国的音乐知识产权问题了。洛厄里认为，全球的音乐制作人既没有在打击非法在线音乐下载的问题上表现出足够的积极主动，也没有从不断扩张的音乐流媒体公司那里成功争取到更多补偿。
Mr. Lowery's efforts come as China's music industry is evolving rapidly with web tech and innovation and as lawmakers grapple to keep up with the changes. A draft of the Chinese copyright law released several years ago hit a bad note with musicians, who claimed that it stripped their rights to their music and gave it instead to bureaucratic copyright administrations, insiders say.
反观中国的音乐产业，网络技术和创新令这个产业迅速演变，而立法者却很难跟上这些变化。行业内人士称，几年前公布的《中国著作权法草案》令音乐人大为不满，在他们看来，这项草案剥夺了他们对自己音乐的权利，反而将这些权利交给了相关政府部门。
Some companies are trying to help better compensate musicians: Companies like Xiami, a Hangzhou-based online music portal owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, for example, stream Chinese music online and have launched online crowdsourcing to fund bands and live web-casts of shows.
一些企业正在努力帮助音乐人获得更多补偿。以总部位于杭州的虾米音乐网(Xiami)为例，这家由电子商务巨头阿里巴巴集团(Alibaba Group)持有的公司提供网上音乐播放服务，还通过在线众筹的方式来为乐队和网络实时转播的表演进行筹资。
But piracy is a hard match for even the most innovative efforts, making it difficult for musicians to make much of a living.
但即便采用最具创新性的措施，盗版问题仍难以解决，这使得音乐人很难只靠音乐维持生计。
Yang Haisong, the lead singer for Beijing-based Chinese indie rock band P.K. 14, says he and his band members could never live off song sales. 'Everyone in music here still has a day job,' said Mr. Yang. While Apple's iTunes has solved some of the problem in other countries, encouraging people to buy licensed songs so bands can receive royalties from downloads, it hasn't solved issues here, Mr. Yang said. The adoption rate of iTunes in China hasn't been as high as in the U.S., Mr. Yang said.
北京独立摇滚乐团P.K. 14的主唱杨海崧说，他和乐队的成员们不可能只靠音乐销量为生。杨海崧说，乐队里的所有人都有自己的日常工作。杨海崧说，苹果公司(Apple)的iTunes在其他国家解决了一些这类问题，鼓励人们购买正版歌曲，使得乐队能从听众的下载中获得版税，但iTunes却并没有解决中国的问题。他说，中国市场对于iTunes的接受度没有美国那样高。
Mr. Yang said most bands in China don't expect they can turn a buck on their tunes. Still, it isn't necessarily a problem, he said. 'We don't mind giving our music to our fans,' Mr. Yang said, adding that as long as the fans aren't selling the music the band produces, they think it's fair.
杨海崧说，中国多数乐队都不指望音乐能赚钱。不过他说，这未必是个问题，我们并不介意免费让粉丝听音乐，只要粉丝们不把乐队的原创音乐转手倒卖，我们认为就是公平的。
Industry insiders hope that Chinese officials will create legislation to stamp out piracy online and ensure they get favorable shares of revenue from companies that license their music. They also hope emerging music sites will be able to stamp out providers of illegal content in the same way that Chinese video sites like Youku Inc., Tudou Holdings Ltd., Baidu Inc. and Sohu.com Ltd. have in recent years.
业内人士希望中国官员立法打击网络盗版侵权，确保音乐人从唱片发行公司那里得到有利的收入分成。他们还希望，新兴音乐网站应该剔除违法内容上传者，效法优酷、土豆、百度以及搜狐近些年来推出的对策。
Experts say it's not clear how the hoped-for legislation will ultimately affect artists in China. As always in China, implementation is everything. Subsequent rules and regulations will also play a role in determining the legislation's efficacy.
专家说，目前尚不清楚被千呼万唤的立法能否最终影响中国搞艺术的人们。在中国，贯彻实施才是重中之重。对于立法的有效性，后续的规则和规定也发挥著作用。
Mr. Lowery says that as China looks to export its culture and gain a friendlier image overseas, protecting its musicians is the obvious next step. 'If you want soft power, that's the way it works,' he said.
洛厄里说，中国正寻求传播本国文化、传达更具亲和力的国际形象，因此显而易见地，下一步就是音乐人受到保护。他说，如果你想要软实力，那么这就是打造软实力的途径。
