Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China (2020 Amendment)

Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China (2020 Amendment)

(Adopted at the Fifteenth Session of the Standing Committee of the Seventh National People's Congress on September 7, 1990 and amended for the first time in accordance with the Decision of the 24th Session of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress Concerning Amendment to the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China on October 27, 2001; amended for the second time in accordance with the Decision of the 13th Session of the Standing Committee of the Eleventh National People's Congress Concerning Amendment to the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China on February 26, 2010; amended for the third time in accordance with Decision of the 23rd session of Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Amending the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China on November 11, 2020)

Contents
Chapter I General Provisions
Chapter II Copyright
Section 1 Copyright Owners and Their Rights
Section 2 Ownership of Copyright
Section 3 Term of Protection
Section 4 Limitations on Rights
Chapter III Contracts of Copyright Licensing and Contracts of Copyright Transfer
Chapter IV Copyright-Related Rights
Section 1 Publication of Books, Newspapers and Periodicals
Section 2 Performance
Section 3 Sound Recording and Video Recording
Section 4 Broadcasting by A Radio Station or Television Station
Chapter V Protection of Copyright and Copyright-Related Rights
Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1 This Law is enacted, in accordance with theConstitution for the purposes of protecting the copyright of authors in their literary, artistic and scientific works and rights related to copyright, of encouraging the creation and dissemination of works which would contribute to the construction of socialist spiritual and material civilization, and of promoting the development and flourishing of socialist culture and sciences.

Article 2 Works of Chinese citizens, legal entities or unincorporated organizations, whether published or not, shall enjoy copyright in accordance with this Law.
Any work of a foreigner or stateless person which enjoys copyright under an agreement concluded between the country to which the author belongs or in which the author permanently resides and China, or under an international treaty to which both countries are parties, shall be protected by this Law.
Any work of a foreigner or stateless person published for the first time and within the territory of China shall enjoy copyright in accordance with this Law.
Any work of an author from a country not having concluded an agreement with China or entered into an international treaty jointly with China or of a stateless person, which is published for the first time in a country as a member of the international treaty into which China has entered or published in a member country and non- member country at the same time, shall be protected by this Law.

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:
(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;
(9) other intellectual achievements that meet the characteristics of works.

Article 4 When exercising rights, copyright owners and copyright-related rights holders shall not violate theConstitution and laws, or damage public interests. The state shall supervise and administrate the publication and dissemination of works according to the law.

Article 5 This Law shall not be applicable to:
(1) laws, regulations, resolutions, decisions and orders of state organs; other documents of legislative, administrative or judicial nature; and their official translations;
(2) simple factual information;
(3) calendars, numerical tables, forms of general use and formulas.

Article 6 Regulations for the protection of copyright in expressions of folklore shall be separately established by the State Council.

Article 7 The copyright administration department under the State Council shall be responsible for the nationwide administration of copyright. The local copyright authorities at or above the county level shall be responsible for the administration of copyright within its own jurisdiction.

Article 8 Copyright owners and the obligees related to copyright may authorize a collective management organization of copyright to exercise the copyright or the rights related to copyright. As a non-for-profit legal person, a collective management organization of copyrights lawfully formed may, with authorization, claim rights in its own name for a copyright owner and a copyright-related right holder, and may, as a party concerned, participate in the litigation, arbitration, and mediation activities involved with copyright or the rights related to copyright.
A collective management organization of copyrights shall collect royalties from users based on the authorization. The standards for the collection of royalties shall be determined by the collective management organization of copyrights and the user representative through negotiation. If the negotiation fails, the parties may apply to the copyright authority of the state for a ruling. If they refuse to accept a ruling, they may institute a lawsuit with the people's court; and the parties may directly institute a lawsuit with the people's court as well.
A collective management organization of copyrights shall disclose the collection and transfer of royalties, the withdrawal and use of management fees, the unallocated royalties, and other overall situation to the public on a regular basis, and establish a rights information inquiry system for inquiry by right owners, right holders and users. The copyright authority of the state shall supervise and manage collective management organizations of copyrights in accordance with the law.
For collective management organizations of copyrights, their methods of formation, rights and obligations, and collection and distribution of royalties, as well as supervision over and management of them shall be separately prescribed by the State Council.

Chapter II Copyright

Section 1 Copyright Owners and Their Rights

Article 9 “Copyright owners” shall include:
(1) authors;
(2) other natural persons, legal entities and unincorporated organizations enjoying copyright in accordance with this Law.

Article 10 “Copyright” shall include the following personal rights and property rights:
(1) the right of publication, that is, the right to decide whether to make a work available to the public;
(2) the right of authorship, that is, the right to claim authorship and to have the author's name mentioned in connection with the work;
(3) the right of alteration, that is, the right to alter or authorize others to alter one's work;
(4) the right of integrity, that is, the right to protect one's work against distortion and mutilation;
(5) the right of reproduction, that is, the right to produce one or more copies of the work by means of printing, Xeroxing, rubbing, sound recording, video recording, duplicating, re-shooting, or digital way etc.;
(6) the right of distribution, that is, the right to provide the public with original copies or reproduced copies of works by means of selling or donating;
(7) the right of lease, that is, the right to non-gratuitously permit others to temporarily use the original or copy of audiovisual works and computer software, unless the computer software is not the main object of lease;
(8) the right of exhibition, that is, the right to publicly display the original copies or reproduced copies of works of fine art and cinematographic works;
(9) the right of performance, that is, the right to publicly perform works, and to publicly transmit the performance of works by various means;
(10) the right of projection, that is, the right to make, by such technical equipment as projector, episcope, etc., the works of fine art, photographic works, audiovisual works, etc. reappear publicly;
(11) the right of broadcasting, that is, the right to publicly broadcast or disseminate works by wired or wireless means, and to disseminate broadcast works to the public by audio amplifier or other similar instruments for transmission of signs, sounds or images, excluding the right as prescribed in item (12) of this paragraph;
(12) the right of dissemination via information networks, that is, the right to provide works that may be obtained by the public at the time and place selected by the public by wired or wireless means;
(13) the right of production, that is, the right to fix works on the carrier audiovisual works;
(14) the right of adaptation, that is, the right to modify a work for the purpose of creating a new work of original creation;
(15) the right of translation, that is, the right to transform the language of a work into another language;
(16) the right of compilation, that is, the right to choose or edit some works or fragments of works so as to form a new work;
(17) other rights which shall be enjoyed by the copyright owners.
A copyright owner may permit others to exercise the rights provided in Items (5) through (17) of the preceding paragraph, and may receive remuneration as agreed upon in the contract or in accordance with the relevant provisions in this Law.
A copyright owner may wholly or partially transfer the rights provided in Items (5) through (17) of Paragraph 1 of this Article, and may receive remuneration as agreed upon in the contract or in accordance with the relevant provisions in this Law.

Section 2 Ownership of Copyright

Article 11 Except otherwise provided in this Law, the copyright in a work shall belong to its author.
The author of a work is the natural person who has created the work.
Where a work is created according to the intention and under the supervision and responsibility of a legal entity or another unincorporated organization, such legal entity or unincorporated organization shall be the author of the work.

Article 12 The natural person, legal person or unincorporated organization whose name is affixed to a work shall, without contrary proof, be the author of the work and have corresponding rights in the work.
Authors and other copyright owners may register their works with a registry recognized by the copyright authority of the state.
The copyright-related rights shall be governed, mutatis mutandis, by the provisions of the preceding two paragraphs.

Article 13 Where a work is created by adaptation, translation, annotation or arrangement of a pre-existing work, the copyright in the work thus created shall be enjoyed by the adapter, translator, annotator or arranger, provided that the copyright in the original work is not infringed upon.

Article 14 Where a work is created jointly by two or more co-authors, the copyright in the work shall be enjoyed jointly by those co-authors. Co-authorship may not be claimed by anyone who has not participated in the creation of the work.
The copyright of a cooperative work shall be exercised by co-authors upon consensus; and where no consensus has been reached and there is no justified reason, no party shall prevent another party from exercising rights other than transferring and permitting others' exclusive use, and pledging, but the proceeds obtained shall be reasonably distributed to all co-authors.
If a work of joint authorship can be separated into independent parts and exploited separately, each co-author shall be entitled to independent copyright in the parts that he has created, provided that the exercise of such copyright does not infringe upon the copyright in the joint work as a whole.

Article 15 A work created by compilation shall refer to the work which is compiled of some works, fragments of works or the data or other materials not constituting a work, and the choice or layout of the contents of which embodies the original creation. The copyright of the compilation work shall be enjoyed by the compiler, provided that the exercise of such copyright does not infringe upon the copyright of the pre-existing works included in the compilation.

Article 16 To use a work produced by adaptation, translation, annotation, sorting, or compilation of an existing work for publication, performance, and production of an audiovisual work, the permission of the copyright owner of the work and the copyright owner of the original work shall be obtained and remunerations shall be paid to the copyright owners.

Article 17 The copyright of cinematographic works and TV play works in audiovisual works shall be enjoyed by producers, but screenwriters, directors, photographers, lyricists, composers, and other authors shall enjoy the right of signature and have the right to obtain remunerations as agreed upon in the contracts signed with producers.
The ownership of the copyright of an audiovisual work other than those specified in the preceding paragraph shall be agreed upon by the parties; and where there is no agreement or the agreement is unclear, the copyright shall be enjoyed by the producer, but the author shall have the right of signature and receive remunerations.
The authors of script, music, and other works that may be used separately shall have the right to separately exercise their right of copyright.

Article 18 A work created by a natural person when fulfilling the tasks assigned to him by a legal entity or another unincorporated organization shall be deemed to be a service work. Unless otherwise provided in Paragraph 2 of this Article, the copyright of such a work shall be enjoyed by the author, but the legal entity or unincorporated organization shall have a priority right to exploit the work within the scope of its professional activities. During the two years after the completion of the work, the author shall not, without the consent of the legal entity or organization, authorize a third party to exploit the work in the same way as the legal entity or organization does.
In the following cases the author of a service work shall enjoy the right of authorship, while the legal entity or unincorporated organization shall enjoy other rights included in the copyright and may reward the author:
(1) drawings of engineering designs and product designs, sketch maps, computer software and other service works, which are created mainly with the materials and technical resources of the legal entity or unincorporated organization and under its responsibility;
(2) works for hire created by employees of newspapers, periodical presses, news agencies, radio stations, and television stations;
(3) service works of which the copyright is, in accordance with the laws or administrative regulations or as agreed upon in the contract, enjoyed by the legal entity or unincorporated organization.

Article 19 The ownership of copyright in a commissioned work shall be agreed upon in a contract between the commissioning an......