President HU Jintao has signed a presidential order No.66, publishing “the decision of the NPC Standing Committee on modifying the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China”. The revised copyright law will be executed from April 1, 2010 April. The modified copyright law totally has 6 chapters, 61 articles, including general rules, copyright, copyright licensing and transfer contract, publication, performance, audio and video recording and broadcasting, legal responsibility and enforcement measures, supplementary provisions, etc.
Among the modifications of the copyright law this time, the most conspicuous modification is that of Clause 4, deleting Article 1 of Clause 4 ("Works the publication and dissemination of which are prohibited by law shall not be protected by this Law”), and amending as “In exercising their copyright, no copyright owners may violate Constitution or laws, nor may they impair public interests. The nation will supervise and manage the publication and broadcasting of works by laws”. The modification of this clause roots the ruling of WTO dispute settlement institution for the problem of accessing to Chinese publications market filed by U.S.A, the ruling hold that the Article 1 of Clause 4 of copyright law of P.R.C. has violated the international copyright convention “Berne Convention” and the TRIPS of WTO.
The modification on this clause has clarified that the authors who create works independently shall enjoy copyright of works that should be protected, and even for those works the publication and dissemination of which are prohibited, the copyrights of them shall be admitted. It eliminates the worries of foreign copyright owners to delete this clause and shows the attitude of China to protect copyright further connecting with international copyright protection practice. This modification also reflects that Chinese legislation shall be improved by itself, rather than be modified under external pressure. IPR protections develop rapidly in China, but compared to other countries, it is a little weak. Laws modification is the first step of changing the poor situation of IPR protection in China. In China, IPR protection system and enforcement against infringement shall be improved and perfected substantially in urgent, which would really let the IPR protection in China connects with international IPR protection synchronization.
