Abstract: The newly revised Chinese Copyright Law formally came into force on June 1, 2021. As a result of many years of discussion, the new Copyright Law reflects the consensus and the greatest common divisor reached among various circles of society at the current stage. It focuses on solving important problems related to the development of the copyright industry and cultural construction at the new stage of development in China, strengthens the protection of copyrights, and puts forward targeted measures for the effective enforcement of the law, and fully embodies the spirit of respecting and encouraging originality and protecting innovation. Meanwhile, the new Copyright Law does not contain direct provisions on the controversial issues arising from the development and application of new technologies and the adjustments of industrial interests in the process of the revision the law, especially issues of interpretation of legal concepts and the application of legal rules, which are left to be solved thorough the concrete regulation and guidance by supporting administrative regulations and judicial interpretations after the implementation of the law. For example, the influence of the concept of "originality" in the definition of a work on the application of the miscellaneous clauses after the expansion of the types of works, the understanding of the concept of the types of audiovisual works and the corresponding ownership rules, the establishment of conditions of the application of the provisions on the limitation and exception of rights (commonly known as fair use in academic theory) as miscellaneous clauses, the meanings of various rights and provisions after the expansion of the broadcasting organizer’s rights – all these issues need to be further clarified in the implementation of the law, so as to establish a law enforcement mechanism that conforms to the purposes of the Copyright Law and is able to achieve an optimum balance between creators, disseminators and the public.

Author:Guan Yuying, a research fellow and head of the Intellectual Property Law Department of CASS Law Institute, and director of CASS Center for Intellectual Property Law Studies.

Source: Chinese Social Sciences Today, No. 2237, August 25, 2021.