Draft Amendment to the Copyright Law Submitted for Deliberation

The Amendment (Draft) to the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the Draft Amendment) was submitted to the 17th session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress for deliberation on April 26, 2020.

The current Copyright Law stipulates the basic system in the field of copyright protection in China, which came into force in 1991 and was revised twice in 2001 and 2010. In recent years, with the economic and social development of China, some new situations and problems appear in the field of copyright protection, which need to be solved urgently by revising and improving the Copyright Law: Firstly, some existing regulations can no longer meet the needs of practice with the development of new technologies. Secondly, the cost of copyright enforcement is high, the amount of compensation for infringement is low, the means of law enforcement is insufficient, and copyright infringement is difficult to be effectively contained. Thirdly, some provisions of the current Copyright Law need to be further connected with the international treaties that China has joined in recent years and laws issued such as the general provisions of the Civil Law.

The Draft Amendment mainly includes the following points:

Increase violation cost

According to the Draft Amendment, punitive damages of more than one time and less than five times the amount of compensation may be applied for serious infringement. And also, the upper limit of statutory compensation is increased from 500,000 yuan to 5 million yuan.

In addition, the Draft Amendment increases the multiple of royalties as a reference for the calculation of compensation amount, and increases the system of ordering infringers to provide books and materials related to infringement.

Modify concept expression  

In order to adapt to the new requirements of the high-speed development and application of new technologies for copyright legislation, the Draft Amendment revises "film works and works created by similar film making methods" to "audio-visual works".

In order to adapt to the requirements of the development of new technologies such as the simulcasting of works on the Internet, the Draft Amendment also modifies the relevant expressions of broadcasting rights.

Implement treaty obligations

In order to implement the requirements of the relevant international treaties that China has joined in recent years and respond to international concerns, the Draft Amendment makes the following provisions: 1. Make clear that the object of the right of lease is the original or copy of audio-visual works and computer software. 2. Extend the protection period of photographic works. 3. In terms of reasonable use, it stipulates that "the normal use of the work shall not be affected, and the legitimate rights and interests of the copyright owner shall not be harmed unreasonably" and other contents, and expand the reasonable use of blind people to those with reading dyslexia. 4. Increase the rights of performers to allow others to rent the audio-visual products recording their performances and receive remuneration. 5. Increase the rights of producers of sound recordings to be paid for broadcasting and to perform mechanically.