The national copyright watchdog will launch a special campaign to further regulate image copyrights after Visual China Group—the country's leading stock image and media footage provider－came under fire over false copyright claims. "The administration attaches great importance to the protection of image copyrights and safeguards the legitimate rights and interests of copyright owners," the National Copyright Administration said in a statement on Friday. "However, companies must improve the copyright management mechanism and handle copyrights according to law, not abusing them," it said. The statement addresses an incident in which Visual China Group was widely criticized for falsely watermarking images for commercial use, including the first image of a black hole and China's national flag and national emblem. Cyberspace administrators in Tianjin, where the company is based, have started an investigation and ordered the company to immediately halt any violations. The scandal came to light when netizens discovered that the first image of a black hole, unveiled on Wednesday, was quickly added to Visual China's stock with a copyright claim, meaning anyone using the image without paying Visual China would be infringing on the copyright. The company issued an statement on Thursday afternoon in response to questions about the copyright claim. It said the image of the black hole belongs to the European Southern Observatory, and it had received authorization for use but not for commercial purposes. The observatory is an intergovernmental organization based in Germany.