On November 11, 2020, China’s National People’s Congress approved amendments to the Copyright Law. The amendments will become effective on June 1, 2021. The amended Copyright Law improves the relevant provisions of copyright protection in cyberspace, especially greatly increasing the upper limit of legal compensation for infringement and clarifying the principle of punitive compensation, so as to further "support" creators to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests. ・Damages The amended Copyright Law provides a series of punishment measures to greatly increase the cost of infringement. For intentional infringement, if the circumstances are serious, punitive damages ranging from one to five times the amount of compensation may be applied. If the actual loss of the right holder, the illegal income of the infringer, and the royalties are difficult to calculate, the court shall, based on the circumstances of the infringement, award compensation of not less than RMB 500 but not more than RMB 5 million.
(Relevant part of Article 54) The amount of damages for infringement of copyright and copyright-related rights shall be determined based on the actual losses suffered by the right holder due to the infringement or the illegal income of the infringer through the infringement; if it is difficult to determine the loss of the right holder or the illegal income of the infringer, it shall be determined with reference to the royalties of the right. For intentional infringement of copyright and copyright-related rights, if the circumstances are serious, the amount of compensation may be determined within one to five times the amount determined according to the above method. Where it is difficult to determine the loss of the right holder, illegal income of the infringer, and the royalties, the court may determine the amount of more than RMB 500 but less than RMB 5 million according to the circumstances of the infringement. The amount of compensation should also include reasonable expenses paid by the right holder to stop the infringement.
・Concept of “work”
The amended Copyright Law also makes adjustments to the definition of "work", and changes the expression of "cinematographic works and works created by virtue of an analogous method of film production" in the current law to "audiovisual works". This means that the scope of copyright protection will be further expanded, and new types of works such as network short videos will get strong legal protection.
(Article 3)
“Works” mentioned in this Law shall refer to ingenious intellectual achievements in the fields of literature, art and science that can be presented in a certain form, including:
(1)written works;
(2)oral works;
(3)musical, dramatic, quyi, choreographic and acrobatic art works;
(4)works of fine art and architecture;
(5)photographic works;
(6)audiovisual works;
(7)drawings of engineering designs and product designs, maps, sketches and other graphic works as well as model works;
(8)computer software; and (9)other intellectual achievements that meet the characteristics of works.
・Fair use
The current Copyright Law provides that “free-of-charge live performance of a published work, without the permission from and payment of remuneration to the copyright owner, is permitted when neither fees are charged from the public nor the remuneration is paid to the performers, provided that the name of the author is mentioned.” In order to prevent the purposes of making a profit in disguise by such means as collecting advertising fees through free performance, the amended Copyright Law replaces the aforesaid case of fair use with the following article 24.
(Article 24) In the following cases, a work may be exploited without permission from, and without payment of remuneration to, the copyright owner, provided that the name of the author and the title of the work shall be mentioned and the other rights enjoyed by the copyright owner by virtue of this Law shall not be prejudiced:
… (9) free-of-charge live performance of a published work for which neither fees are charged to the public nor remuneration is paid to the performers, and the performance is not for the purposes of making profits.
・Technological protection measures The amended Copyright Law also makes it clear that in order to protect copyright and copyright-related rights, the right holder may take technical measures.
Source:http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c30834/202011/c0e15181bfdf4eadb7065bee74574953.shtml