China to amend Copyright Law

Recently, PRC President Hu Jintao signed Order No.26 to publicize the Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Amending the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China. The revised Copyright Law will come to effect from April 1, 2010.

Based on the Decision, Article 4 of the Copyright Law will be revised as "copyright holders should not violate constitution and laws and should not harm public benefits when exerting their copyrights. The state supervises and manages the publication and distribution of the works according to laws". Meanwhile, the Copyright Law added one more article as Article 26, i.e. "when investing with the copyright, the pawner and the pawnee should make record in the copyright administrations of the State Council."

The revised Copyright Law includes general principles, copyright, contracts on license and transfer of copyrights, publication, performance, record & video, play, legal liability and law enforcement measures, supplementary articles, ect..