If a singer performs another’s popular musical w...

6.If a singer performs another’s popular musical work, and does not receive remuneration and the performance does not require tickets, do the singer or organizer need to obtain authorization from the right owner?

This performance is a “fair use” under the Copyright Law, so no authorization or remuneration is required.At present, there are four situations in which a work can be used without an authorization license according to Chinese law: (1) statutory License.See “Statutory License”in Section VII of this chapter for details; (2) works that have entered the public domain.As mentioned in Section V above, the Copyright Law only protects works that are still in the protection period.Works beyond the protection period will enter the public domain which can be used without the consent of the copyright owner and without paying the remuneration.However, note that the right of authorship, right of alteration and right of integrity of one’s work shall not be restricted by the term of protection;(3) specific circumstances of commissioned creation.In the absence of a clear agreement on the ownership of the copyright and the scope of the use of the work, the copyright belongs to the trustee, but the client may enjoy limited free use of the work which is similar to the logic of rules of the service work; (4) fair use.The Copyright Law stipulates that under certain conditions, the law allows others to use copyrighted works freely without the permission of the right holder, and the legal act of not paying the remuneration to the copyright owner is specif ied in Section Ⅷabout “fair use” of the chapter.A work can be fair used without the permission from, and without payment of remuneration to, the copyright owner, provided that the name of the author and the title of the work are mentioned and the other rights enjoyed by the copyright owner by virtue of this Law are not infringed upon.It shall also be noted that the relevant provisions of “fair use” apply not only to copyright but also to neighboring rights.(https://www.daowen.com)

Copyright Law of China expressly stipulates that a work may be exploited without permission or payment of remuneration to the copyright owner but the user shall indicate the name of the author, the name of the work and shall not infringe other rights enjoyed by the copyright owner in accordance with this law in the following circumstances: (1) use of a published work for the purposes of the user’s own private study, research or self-entertainment; (2) appropriate quotation from a published work in one’s own work for the purposes of introduction of, or comment on, a work, or demonstration of a point; (3) inevitable reappearance or citation of a published work in newspapers, periodicals, radio stations,television stations or other media for the purpose of reporting current events; (4) reprinting by newspapers or periodicals or other media, or rebroadcasting by radio stations or television stations or other media,of the current event articles on the issues of politics, economy and religion, which have been published by other newspapers, periodicals, radio stations or television stations or other media, except where the author has declared that publication or broadcasting is not permitted; (5) publication in newspapers or periodicals or other media, or broadcasting by radio stations or television stations or other media, of a speech delivered at a public assembly, except where the author has declared that publication or broadcasting is not permitted; (6) translation or reproduction,in a small quantity of copies, of a published work for use by teachers or scientific researchers in classroom teaching or scientific research, provided that the translation or reproduction is not published or distributed;(7) use of a published work by a State organ within the 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 or similar institution, for the purpose of the display or preservation of a copy of the work; (9) free of charge performance of a published work, that is, with respect to the performance, fees are not charged from the public nor is remuneration paid to the performers; (10) copying, drawing, photographing, or video recording of an artistic work located or on display in an outdoor public place; (11)translation of a work published by a Chinese citizen, legal entity or organization, which is created in the Han language (Chinese), into a minority nationality language for publication and distribution within the country; (12) translation of a published work into Braille and publication of the work so translated.