Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China

(Adopted at the 15th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Seventh National People's Congress on September 7, 1990; amended for the first time in accordance with the Decision on Amending the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China at the 24th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress on October 27, 2001; amended for the second time in accordance with the Decision on Amending the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China at the 13th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eleventh National People's Congress on February 26, 2010; and amended for the third time in accordance with the Decision on Amending the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China at the 23rd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress 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 of Rights

Section 4  Limitations on Rights

Chapter III Copyright Licensing and Transfer Contracts

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 the Constitution, for the purpose of protecting the copyright of authors in their literary, artistic and scientific works and the rights and interests related to copyright, encouraging the creation and dissemination of works conducive to the building of a socialist society that is advanced ethically and materially, and promoting the development and flourishing of socialist culture and sciences.

Article 2  Works of Chinese citizens, legal persons or unincorporated organizations, whether published or not, shall have copyright in accordance with this Law.

The copyright enjoyed by foreigners or stateless persons in any of their works under an agreement concluded between China and the country to which the authors belong or in which they have their habitual residences, or under an international treaty to which both countries are parties, shall be protected by this Law.

Any work of foreigners and stateless persons published for the first time within the territory of China shall have copyright in accordance with this Law.

Any work of an author from a country that has not concluded any agreement with China or does not join an international treaty to which China is a party and any work of a stateless person, which is published for the first time in a member country of an international treaty to which China is a party, or simultaneously published in a member country of the treaty and in a non-member country, shall be protected by this Law.

Article 3  For purposes of this Law, the term "works" means intellectual achievements in the fields of literature, art and science, which are original and can be expressed in a certain form, including:

(1) written works;

(2) oral works;

(3) musical, dramatic, quyi, choreographic and acrobatic art works;

(4) works of the fine arts and architecture;

(5) photographic works;

(6) audiovisual works;

(7) graphic works such as drawings of engineering designs, product designs, maps and sketches, and model works;

(8) computer software; and

(9) other intellectual achievements conforming to the characteristics of the works.

Article 4  Copyright owners and copyright-related right owners may not violate the Constitution and laws,  and may not harm public interests when exercising their rights. The State shall supervise and administrate the publication and dissemination of works in accordance with the law.

Article 5  This Law shall not apply to:

(1) laws and regulations, resolutions, decisions and orders of State organs, other documents of a legislative, administrative or judicial nature and the official translations thereof;

(2) mere information about facts or happenings; and

(3) calendars, numerical tables and forms of general use, and formulas.

Article 6  Measures for the protection of copyright in works of folk literature and art shall be formulated separately by the State Council.

Article 7  The competent department of copyright of the State shall be responsible for the administration of copyright nationwide; the local competent departments of copyright at or above the county level shall be responsible for the administration of copyright in their respective administrative areas.

Article 8  Copyright owners and copyright-related right owners may authorize collective administration organizations of copyrights to exercise their copyright or copyright-related rights. A collective administration organization of copyrights established in accordance with the law is a not-for-profit legal person, which may, upon authorization, claim rights in its own name for the copyright owners or the copyright-related right owners and participate as a party in litigation, arbitration or mediation activities concerning the copyright or copyright-related rights.

Collective administration organizations of copyrights shall collect royalties from users based on the authorization. The standard for the collection of royalties shall be determined by the collective administration organizations of copyrights and representatives of the users through consultation; if consultation fails, the parties may file an application to the competent department of copyright of the State for a ruling; if the said parties are not satisfied with the ruling, they may bring a lawsuit in the people's court, or the parties may directly bring a lawsuit in the people's court.

Collective administration organizations of copyrights shall regularly publicize to the public the collection and transfer of royalties, the withdrawal and use of management fees, and undistributed royalties and other overall situation, and establish a rights information inquiry system for the inquiry of right owners and users. The competent department of copyright of the State shall supervise and administrate the collective administration organizations of copyrights in accordance with the law.

The way to establish collective administration organizations of copyrights, their rights and obligations, collection and distribution of royalties, and supervision and administration of them shall be prescribed separately by the State Council.

Chapter II

Copyright

Section 1

Copyright Owners and Their Rights

Article 9  Copyright owners include:

(1) authors; and

(2) other natural persons, legal persons and unincorporated organizations enjoying copyright in accordance with this Law.

Article 10  Copyright includes 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 a work by printing, photocopying, rubbing, sound recording, video recording, ripping, duplicating a photographic work, digitizing, or by other means;

(6) the right of distribution, that is, the right to provide the original copy or reproduced copies of a work to the public by sale or donation;

(7) the right of rental, that is, the right to non-gratuitously permit others to temporarily use an audiovisual work, or the original or copies of a computer software, except where the software itself is not the main object of the lease;

(8) the right of exhibition, that is, the right to publicly display the original copy or reproduced copies of a work of fine arts or of a photographic work;

(9) the right of performance, that is, the right to publicly perform a work, and to publicly communicate the performance of a work by various means;

(10) the right of projection, that is, the right to publicly reproduce works of fine arts,  photographic works, audiovisual works, or other works, by a projector, slide projector or any other technical equipment;

(11) the right of broadcasting, that is, the right to publicly disseminate or rebroadcast  works by wire or by wireless means, and to disseminate broadcast works to the public by loudspeaker or any other similar instruments for transmitting signs, sounds or images, but excluding the right mentioned in Subparagraph (12) of this paragraph;

(12) the right of communication through information network, that is, the right to make a work available to the public by wire or by wireless means, so that the public may have access to the work at time and place chosen by them;

(13) the right of cinematography, that is, the right to fix a work on the medium by producing an audiovisual work;

(14) the right of adaptation, that is, the right to modify a work to create a new one with originality;

(15) the right of translation, that is, the right to transform the work from one language into another language;

(16) the right of compilation, that is, the right to compile, by selection or arrangement, the works or fragments of works into a new work; and

(17) other rights which shall be enjoyed by the copyright owners.

Copyright owners may authorize others to exercise the rights provided in Subparagraphs (5) to (17) of the preceding paragraph and receive remuneration in accordance with the agreements or the relevant provisions of this Law.

Copyright owners may transfer, wholly or in part, the rights provided in Subparagraphs (5) to (17) of the first paragraph of this Article and receive remuneration in accordance with the agreements or the relevant provisions of this Law.

Section 2

Ownership of Copyright

Article 11  Unless otherwise provided by this Law, the copyright in a work shall belong to its author.

The author of a work is a natural person who creates the work.

Where a work is created under the auspices of, representing the will, and under the responsibility of a legal person or unincorporated organization, such a legal person or unincorporated organization shall be deemed the author of the work.

Article 12   The natural person, legal person or unincorporated organization whose name is affixed to a work shall be the author of the work and have corresponding rights in the work, unless there is proof to the contrary.

Authors and other copyright owners may register their works with the registration organs recognized by the competent department of copyright of the State.

The provisions of the preceding two paragraphs shall apply mutatis mutandis to the copyright-related rights.

Article 13  The copyright of  a work created by adaptation, translation, annotation or arrangement of a preexisting work shall be enjoyed by the adapter, translator, annotator or arranger, provided that the exercise of such copyright does not infringe upon the copyright in the original work.

Article 14  Where a work is created jointly by two or more authors, the copyright in the work shall be enjoyed jointly by the co-authors. A person who does not participate in the creation shall not be a co-author.

The copyright of a joint work shall be exercised by the co-authors through consensus; where consensus cannot be reached and there are no justifiable reasons, no party shall prevent the other parties from exercising rights other than transferring, permitting others' exclusive use of and pledging the copyright, but the proceeds obtained shall be reasonably distributed to all co-authors.

Where a joint work can be used separately, each co-author may be entitled to independent copyright in the part that he creates, 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 of several works, fragments of works or of data or other materials which do not constitute a work is a compilation when the selection or arrangement of the contents thereof reflect the originality. The copyright in such compilation shall be enjoyed by the compiler, provided that the exercise of such copyright does not infringe upon the copyright in the original works.

Article 16  Whoever use a work created by adaptation, translation, annotation, arrangement or compilation of a preexisting work for publication, performance, or production of a sound or video recording, shall obtain permission from and pay remuneration to the copyright owner of the work and the copyright owner of the original work.

Article 17  The copyright of a cinematographic work or a television play work, which are audiovisual works, shall be enjoyed by the producer, but the scriptwriter, director, cameraman, lyricist, composer and other authors shall enjoy the right of authorship and shall be entitled to remuneration in accordance with the contracts concluded with the producer.

The ownership of the copyright in audiovisual works other than those prescribed in the preceding paragraph shall be agreed upon by the parties concerned; where there is no agreement or the agreement is unclear, the copyright shall be enjoyed by the producer, but the author shall enjoy the right of authorship and the right to remuneration. The authors of the scripts, music and other audiovisual works that may be used separately shall be entitled to exercise their copyright separately.

Article 18  A work created by a natural person in the fulfillment of tasks assigned to him by a legal person or unincorporated organization is a work for hire. Unless otherwise provided in the second paragraph of this Article, the copyright in such a work shall be enjoyed by the author; but the legal person or unincorporated organization shall have priority to use the work within the scope of its professional activities. Within two years after the completion of the work, the author shall not, without the consent of the legal person or unincorporated organization, authorize a third party to use the work in the same manner as the legal person or unincorporated organization does.

In any of the following cases, the author of a work for hire shall enjoy the right of authorship, while the legal person or unincorporated organization shall enjoy other rights included in the copyright and may reward the author:

(1) drawings of engineering designs and product designs, maps, sketch maps, computer software and other works for hire which are created mainly with the material and technical resources of the legal person or unincorporated organization and under its responsibility;

(2) works for hire created by employees of newspaper, periodical presses, news agencies, radio stations and television stations; or

(3) works for hire of which the copyright is enjoyed by the legal person or unincorporated organization in accordance with laws, administrative regulations or contracts.

Article 19  The ownership of the copyright in a commissioned work shall be stipulated in a contract between the commissioning party and the commissioned party. Where there is no explicit stipulation in the contract or no contract is concluded, the copyright in such a  work shall belong to the commissioned party.

Article 20  The transfer of ownership of the original work shall not change ownership of the copyright of the work, but the right to exhibit the original work of fine art or of a photographic work shall be enjoyed by the owner of the original work.

Where an author transfers the ownership of the original copy of an unpublished work of fine art or photographic work, the transferee's exhibition of the original copy does not constitute an infringement upon the author's right of publication.

Article 21  Where the copyright in a work belongs to a natural person, his rights in respect of the work as provided in Subparagraphs (5) to (17) of the first paragraph of Article 10 of this Law shall, after his death and during the term of protection provided in this Law, be transferred in accordance with the law.

Where the copyright of a work belongs to a legal person or unincorporated organization, the rights provided in Subparagraphs (5) to (17) of the first paragraph of Article 10 of this Law shall, after the change or termination of the status of the legal person or unincorporated organization and during the term of protection provided in this Law, be enjoyed by the succeeding legal person or unincorporated organization which takes over its rights and obligations; where there is no succeeding legal person or unincorporated organization to take over the said legal person or unincorporated organization's rights and obligations, the copyright shall be enjoyed by the State.

Section 3

Term of Protection of Rights

Article 22  The term of protection of an author's right of authorship, alteration and  integrity shall be unlimited.

Article 23  In respect of a work of a natural person, the term of protection for the right of publication and the rights as provided in Subparagraphs (5) to (17) of the first paragraph of Article 10 of this Law shall be the life of the author and fifty years after his death, expiring on December 31 of the fiftieth year after his death. In the case of a joint work, the term shall expire on December 31 of the fiftieth year after the death of the last surviving author.

For a work of a legal person or unincorporated organization, and a work for hire whose copyright (excluding the right of authorship) is enjoyed by a legal person or unincorporated organization, the term of protection for the right of publication shall be fifty years, expiring on December 31 of the fiftieth year after the completion of its creation; and the term of protection for the rights as provided in Subparagraphs (5) to (17) of the first paragraph of Article 10 of this Law shall be fifty years, expiring on December 31 of the fiftieth year after the first publication of such a work;  but if a work is not published within fifty years after the completion of its creation, it shall no longer be protected by this Law.

For an audiovisual work, the term of protection for the right of publication shall be fifty years, expiring on December 31 of the fiftieth year after the completion of its creation; and the term of protection for the rights as provided in Subparagraphs (5) to (17) of the first paragraph of Article 10 of this Law shall be fifty years, expiring on December 31 of the fiftieth year after the first publication of such a work;  but if a work is not published within fifty years after the completion of its creation, it shall no longer be protected by this Law.

Section 4

Limitations on Rights

Article 24  In the following cases, a work may be used without permission of, and without payment of remuneration to the copyright owner, provided that the name or appellation of the author and the title of the work are indicated, the normal use of the work is not affected and the legitimate rights and interests enjoyed by the copyright owner are not unreasonably prejudiced:

(1) use of a published work of another for purposes of personal study, research or appreciation;

(2) appropriate quotation from a published work of another in one's own work for the purpose of introducing or commenting a certain work, or illustrating a point;

(3) unavoidable reproduction or quotation from a published work in newspapers, periodicals, radio stations, television stations or other media for the purpose of reporting news;

(4) publication or broadcasting by newspapers, periodicals, radio stations, television stations or other media of current event articles on issues of politics, economy and religion, which have been published by other newspapers or periodicals, or broadcast by other radio stations or television stations, except where the copyright owner declares that such publication or broadcasting is not permitted;

(5) publication or broadcasting by newspapers, periodicals, radio stations, television stations or other media of a speech delivered at a public gathering, except where the author declares that such publication or broadcasting is not permitted;

(6) translation, adaptation, compilation, broadcasting, or reproduction in a small quantity of copies, of a published work by teachers or scientific researchers for use in classroom teaching or scientific research, provided that such a work shall not be published or distributed;

(7) use of a published work by a State organ to a reasonable scope for the purpose of fulfilling its official duties;

(8) reproduction of a work in its collections by a library, archive, memorial hall, museum, art gallery, cultural center or similar institution for the purpose of display, or preservation of a copy of the work;

(9) free performance of a published work for non-profit purposes, for which the public does not pay any fees and no remuneration is made to the performers;

(10) copying, drawing, photographing or video-recording of a work of art put up or displayed in public places;

(11) translation of a published work of a Chinese citizen, legal person or unincorporated organization from the standard spoken and written Chinese language into minority nationality languages for publication and distribution in the country;

(12) provision of published works to dyslexics in a barrier-free way through which they can perceive; and

(13) other circumstances as provided by laws and administrative regulations.

The provisions of the preceding paragraph shall apply to the copyright-related rights.

Article 25  Those who compile and publish textbooks for the purpose of implementing compulsory education or State education planning may, without permission of copyright owners, compile published fragments of works, short written works, musical works, a single work of fine art, photographic works, or graphic works in the textbooks, but shall pay remunerations to copyright owners according to the provisions, and indicate the names or appellations of authors and titles of works, and shall not infringe upon other rights enjoyed by the copyright owners in accordance with this Law.

The provisions of the preceding paragraph shall apply to the copyright-related rights.