PROTECTION SCOPE OF COPYRIGHT OF LITERARY PROPERTY

1. The Copyright Owner shall have the following rights:

(1) Right of publication, i.e., the right to decide whether or not a work is to be made available to the public;

(2) Right of authorship, i.e., the right to indicate the identity of the author of a work by affixing the author's name thereto;

(3) Right of alteration, i.e., the right to alter or authorize others to alter a work;

(4) Right of integrity, i.e., the right to protect a work from being distorted or falsified;

(5) Right of reproduction, i.e., the right to make one or more copies of a work by means of printing, photocopying, rubbing, sound recording, visual recording, duplicating a sound or visual recording, duplicating a photographic work, etc.;

2. The limitation of Copyright

(1) Fair use

(2) Statutory License

3. Unprotected Scope of Copyright Law

(1). Works that are prohibited from publication or dissemination, as specified by law, shall not be protected under this Law.

(2) Works that violates the Constitution, any other laws or harms the public interests;

(3) Laws, regulations, government organs' resolutions, decisions, orders, and other documents of a legislative, administrative, or judicial nature, or their official translations

(4) News on current events; and

(5) Calendars, numerical tables or forms of general use, and formulas.

Determination of Infringement of Copyright

1. Determination of Infringement

(1) Infringement shall be occurred within the territory of China;

(2) No-willful or negligence existed;

(3) Same or substantially identification with works with copyright;

(4) Causality existed between infringement works and works with copyright;

2. Types of Infringement

(1) Publishing a work without the copyright owner's authorization;

(2) Publishing a work jointly created with others as a work solely created by oneself, without the other joint author(s)' authorization;

(3) Affixing one's name to another's work for one's own fame and profit, without participating in the creation thereof;

(4) Distorting or falsifying another's work;

(5) Plagiarizing another's work;

(6) Using a work, without the copyright owner's authorization, through exhibition or by means of cinematography or similar thereto, or in ways such as adaptation, translation, or annotation, unless otherwise specified in this Law;

(7) Using another's work without paying remuneration that is due and payable;

(8) Renting out a cinematographic work, a work created by means similar to cinematography, computer software, or a sound or visual recording, without the authorization of the copyright owner(s) or copyright-related right owner(s), unless otherwise specified in this Law;

(9) Using the layout of a book or periodical published by a publisher, without the publisher's authorization;

(10) Live broadcasting or publicly transmitting a performer's live performance, or recording the performance without the performer's authorization; or

(11) Reproducing, distributing, performing, projecting, broadcasting or compiling a work, or disseminating the work to the public via information network without the copyright owner's authorization, except as otherwise specified in this Law;

(12) Publishing a book in which another person has the exclusive right of publication;

(13) Reproducing and/or distributing a sound or visual recording of a performance, or disseminating the performance to the public via information network without the performer's authorization, except as otherwise specified in this Law;

(14) Reproducing and/or distributing a sound or visual recording, or disseminating such a recording to the public via information network without the producer's authorization, except as otherwise specified in this Law;

(15) Broadcasting or reproducing a radio or television program without authorization, except as otherwise specified in this Law;

(16) Intentionally circumventing or destroying, without the authorization of the copyright owner or copyright-related right owner, the technological measures applied by the copyright owner or copyright-related right owner to protect the right owner's copyright or copyright-related rights in a work, sound recording, visual recording, etc., except as otherwise specified in laws or administrative regulations;

(17) Intentionally removing or modifying the right management information in electronic form contained in a work, sound recording, visual recording, etc., without authorization of the copyright owner or copyright-related right owner, except as otherwise provided by laws or administrative regulations; or

(18) Producing or selling a work involving passing off of another's name as one's own.

III. Protection Methods of Copyright

1. Execution Methods of Rights

(1) The copyright owner who registers the copyright shall execute its right by the certificate of registration.

(2) The copyright owner shall authorize within the following scopes to protect its right through the organization for collective copyright management (Music Copyright Society of China, China Audio-Video Copyright Association):-

Negotiating, entering into contract, licensing the potential person with intension to use the copyright;

Charging agreed royalty fees to the licensed users;

Transferred the charging fees deducted by certain proportion of management fees to the relevant right owner;

Where relevant works are used by other people without consent, the right owner may bring an action or arbitration against the relevant parties about the copyright or neighboring right when necessary.

2. Mediation and Settlement

(1) People's Court shall distinguish right from wrong and conduct mediation in accordance with the principle of the voluntariness of the parties concerned and on the basis that the facts of the case are clear. When an agreement is reached through mediation, the people's court concerned shall prepare a mediation document. The mediation document shall be legally effective after being signed by the parties concerned as a receipt.

(2) During the mediation, the arbitration tribunal shall hold mediation between two parties. When an agreement is reached through mediation, the arbitration tribunal concerned shall prepare a mediation document. The mediation document shall be legally effective after being signed by the parties concerned as a receipt.

(3) The parties concerned may reach settlement on their own. Such settlement shall have the equal effect with general contract. 

3. Judicial Protection

(1) Plaintiff Qualification

Copyright owner and copyright related obligees infringed;  

After being authorized by the copyright owner, an organization for collective copyright management may claim rights in its own name.

(2) Jurisdiction

People’s court shall accept the following civil cases that involve copyright disputes:

Cases involving copyright or copyright-related rights and interests on ownership, infringement and contract disputes;

Cases involving an application to stop an infringement of copyright or copyright-related rights and interests prior to filing an action, or for property or evidence preservation prior to filing an action; and

Other cases involving disputes over copyright or copyright-related rights and interests

(3) Court with Jurisdiction

Civil cases involving copyright disputes shall be under the jurisdiction of a people's court at an intermediate level or above.

Each high people's court may, according to the actual situation of its respective jurisdiction, designate a number of basic people's courts to govern first instance civil cases involving copyright disputes.

(5) Pre-litigation Measures

a. Requirement of cessation of infringement and property preservation;

b. Application for evidence preservation;

(6) Limitation of Action

The statute of limitation for instituting an action on copyright infringement is two years, to be commenced from the date when the copyright owner is or should be aware of the infringement. If a right owner files an action after the expiration of the two-year period, and the infringement continues to exist at the time when the action is filed, a people's court shall, within the term of protection for the copyright, rule to order the defendant to cease the infringement. Compensation for the infringement shall be calculated starting from two years before the date when the copyright owner filed the action with the people's court.

Iv. Liability of Copyright Infringement

1. Civil Liability

(1) Ceasing the infringement,

(2) Eliminating the impacts

(3) Making an apology

(4) Compensating for the losses (compensation shall be subject to the actual loss of copyright owner; If actual losses of the copyright owner cannot be easily determined, the compensation amount may be the illegal gains by the infringee.

If the losses of the patentee or the benefit of the infringer cannot be easily determined, the compensation amount may be a reasonable number of times of the royalties of that patent.

(5) Impose reprimand on the liable person;

(6) Order the liable person to sign a statement of repentance

(7) Confiscate the property used in and the illegal gains from the illegal activities and impose fines

2. Criminal Liability

(1) Infringement of Copyright

Where illegal amount is large or circumstances are so serious as to constitute a crime, the following shall be considered as a crime:-

Reproducing writing works, music, movies, television, videos, computer software and other works without consents of copyright owner;

Publishing a book in which another person has the exclusive right of publication;

Reproducing and issuing audio-visual recordings without consents of audio-visual producer;

Producing or selling arts work involving passing off of another's name as one's own.

(2) Selling Unauthorized Duplicates of Copyrighted Works

Selling under the circumstances in section (1) with purpose of making profits and if illegal amount is large,  the seller shall be convicted and sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention with the concurrent imposition of a fine, or shall be subject to a fine alone or simultaneously.

V. Relevant Laws and Regulations

1. Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China

2. Copyright Law Implementing Regulations of the People's Republic of China

3. Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Certain Issues Related to the Application of Law in the Trial of Criminal Cases Involving Illegal Publication 

4. Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Certain Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Civil Cases Involving Copyright Disputes

5. Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Certain Issues Related to the Application of Law in the Trial of Cases Involving Computer Network Copyright Disputes

6. Regulations on Collective Copyright Management

7. Measures for the Implementation of Copyright Administrative Penalties.