China’s Copyright Law sees biggest amendment in two decades, and omits highly controversial clause

A highly controversial clause in an amendment to China’s Copyright Law that would hand regulators great power was significantly played down when lawmakers passed the final version this week.

The proposed provision within Article 4, which covers literary and artistic properties, as well as scientific works such as computer programs, was intended to prevent copyright owners from hindering the “normal distribution of works” and “harming the public interest”. This triggered strong opposition from legal experts, and did not make it into the final version of the law.

The amended Article 4 stipulates that the exercising of rights by copyright holders and copyright-related rights holders “must not violate the Constitution and laws, and must not harm the public interest”, excluding the proposed provision that said copyright holders “must not affect normal communications of works by abusing their rights”.

If the provision had been included in the final version, copyright owners could have been subject to a complaint if they did not share access to their property, as they could be viewed to be preventing “normal distribution”.

Law experts had unanimously argued that such an allowance did not exist in any other international conventions or treaties, and they warned that it could have significant legal ramifications if it were adopted.

The new amendment also stipulates that penalties for intentional infringement include the “confiscation of illegal gains” and a fine of up to four times the value of the gains if the abusive use of the copyright “disturbs the order of the dissemination”.