New copyright law came into effect on 27th October 2001

The 24th Session of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress adopted the amendments to the copyright law on 27th October 2001. The new copyright law came into force by order of a presidential decree on the same day.

The major changes to the law are as follows:

1. The status of foreign national and stateless person further clarified. Article 2 (b) provides "the work of foreign national and stateless person shall be granted copyright protection in line with the agreement of his home country or country of habitual residence of the author with the People's Republic of China or international treaties to which both are parties". Article 2 (c) provides "the work of foreign national or stateless person first published in Chinese territory shall be granted copyright protection in China as provided in this law". Article 2 (d) further provides "the work of the author whose home country has not entered an agreement with China or not a member of an international treaty to which both are parties and stateless person, if first published in a member country of an international treaty to which China is a party, if first published in a member country and a non-member country simultaneously shall be granted copyright protection as provided in this law".
   
   
2. Objects of copyright extended. Acrobatic works and architectural works are protected for the first time.
   
   
3. Status of collecting society. Article 8 provides that "owners of copyrights and related rights may authorize copyright collecting society to enforce copyrights and related rights. Having been authorized as such, the collecting society may claim the rights in its own name on behalf of owners of copyrights and related rights, and may participate in suits and arbitration activities relating to copyrights and related rights as a party".

   "Copyright collecting society is a non-profit making organization, its establishing, rights and obligations, the collecting and distribution of copyright license fee as well as the supervision and administration thereof shall be separately stipulated by the State Council."

4. The content of copyright. According to Article 9, the rights of copyright are further specified and clarified. Copyright shall include the following moral rights and property rights:

   a. right of publication;
   b. right of authorship;
   c. right of alteration;
   d. right of preserving integrity;
   e. right of reproduction;
   f. right of lending;
   g. right of exhibition;
   h. right of performance;
   i. right of projection;
   j. right of broadcasting;
   k. right of information network dissemination;
   l. right of film making;
   m. right of adaptation;
   n. right of translation;
   o. right of compilation;
   p. other rights that the author is entitled to.

5. Rights of compilation work. Article 14 provides compiling several works, parts of works or data per se not of the nature of works or other materials, and having an originality in the selection and arrangement of the contents thereof shall be deemed a compilation work, the copyright of which belongs to the person who compiles the work, without prejudice to the copyrights of the original authors.
   
   
6. Limitations of copyrights. "fair use" is now restricted to the least possible.
   
   
7. Protection of format designs of books and periodicals. Article 35 provides "publishers
   may authorize others to use or prohibit others from using the format designs of books and periodicals", and that "the term for protection of such rights is ten years, until 31st December of the tenth year after the publication of books and periodicals with such format designs".
   
   
8. Rights of performers. Such rights are also specified further. Article 37 of the law provides that "performers shall have the rights arising from the performance:

   a. acknowledgement of his status as the performer;
   b. protection of his performance against distortion;
   c. authorizing others to televise and publicly disseminate the live performance, and receiving remunerations;
   d. authorizing others to make sound and video recordings, and receiving remunerations;
   e. authorizing others to reproduce and distribute sound and video recordings of his performance, and receiving remunerations;
   f. authorizing others to disseminating the performance publicly by means of information network, and receiving remunerations.

9. Liabilities for damages now including costs. Article 48 provides "infringer shall be liable for the actual loss suffered on the part of the rights owner for the infringement of copyrights and related rights, if the loss is difficult to determine, the damage shall be determined according to the illegal profit the infringer gained. Damages shall include the reasonable costs for stopping the infringement".

   "In case it is difficult to determine the loss suffered by the infringed party or the profit earned by the infringer, the court may, according to the actual scenario of the case, determine an amount of up to 500,000 Yuan as compensation for the damage".

10. Preliminary injunction now available. Article 49 provides "where owner of copyrights or related rights has evidence to prove that a third party is infringing or about to infringe the rights, and if such act is not timely stopped, is likely to cause irreparable damage, he may, before initiating legal proceedings, request the People's Court to adopt measures for ordering the stoppage of such act and the preservation of property". Article 50 further provides "for the purposes of stopping infringing act, under the circumstance where there is a likelihood that evidence may be destroyed or lost or difficult to obtain later, the owner of copyrights or related rights may request the People's Court that the evidence be preserved before initiating legal proceedings".