According to a report in Interfax yesterday quoting a National Copyright Administration (NCA) official, the NCA has recently issued Internet publishing licenses to 50 companies–12 Internet portals, 22 publishing groups, 6 newspapers, 5 magazines and 5 audio and video publishing companies.

These licenses, the first that have been released in China, will allow them to publish text, graphics and multimedia on the Internet. The full list of companies, which includes Sina, NetEase and Sohu, is expected to be announced later next week, with a second group of licenses expected to be issued in the near future.