In order to further enhance the publicity and transparency of legislation and strengthen the quality of legislation, the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council promulgated The Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China (Revised Draft for examination) (Hereinafter referred to as Draft for examination) and the revision illustration thereof on June 6, which were submitted by the National Copyright Administration to the State Council for examination, to solicit public opinions from all sectors of society.

According to the revision illustrations, the six chapters, 61 articles of the current Copyright Law have been revised to eight chapters, 90 articles by the Draft for examination. The contents of revision mainly lie in four aspects including integration of right system, adjustment of authorization mechanism and rules of market transactions, improvement of remedy measures as well as perfection of system and structure.

It is reported that in order to change the predicament where it is difficult for copyright owners to safeguard the copyrights and for users to acquire copyrights for huge amount of works, the revision of the Copyright Law this time stressed on the consistency in protecting copyright owners’ rights and promoting the spread of works, and on the establishment of scientific, reasonable and normative authorization mechanism and transaction rules for copyright. For this purpose, the Draft for examination added the stipulation on the registration of copyright and related rights thereof and the stipulation on the registration of right during the conclusion of exclusive license contracts and assignment contracts. Meanwhile, for specific situations where copyright owners can not be found but the users still need to use the works, the Draft for examination added relevant stipulation which permits users to use the works in digital form after users’ application to relevant authority and deposit of royalties. To give full play to the system of collective management of copyright, the Draft for examination added the content that the copyright collective management organization may implement extendable collective management on “self-help karaoke system spreading to the public published music, audiovisual works and works used in other ways”, it also strengthened the social supervision and government regulation of the copyright collective management organization.

Date: June 11, 2014               
Source: State Intellectual Property Office