Opinions were solicited from the public during the...
As early as March 2013,the revision of the Copyright Law has been listed in the five-year legislative plan by the Standing Committee of the 12th NPC.In 2018,2019 and 2020,the State Council and the NPCSC explicitly included the revision of the Copyright Law in the legislative work plan.
In 2020, despite the global COVID-19 pandemic, the NPCSC still followed the national policy of strengthening intellectual property protection to step up the revision of the Copyright Law.In April 2020, the Copyright Law (the Amended Draft) (including 64 articles)was deliberated for the first time at the 17th session of the Standing Committee of the 13th NPC.Thereafter,the Legal Affairs Commission of the NPCSC printed and distributed the Draft to local people's congresses,relevant central departments,universities and legal research institutes and relevant social organizations for comments.On 30 April 2020,the Draft for First Deliberation was posted in full text on www.npc.gov.cn to openly solicit public opinions for the first time, which collected more than 160,000 opinions and suggestions from 50,000-plus netizens.
In June 2020,the Constitution and Law Committee and ESCPHC of the NPC and the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPCSC jointly convened a symposium to solicit opinions on the draft amended with reference to the public opinions from relevant central departments,people's organizations,collective copyright management organizations,enterprises and experts.The author also participated in the symposium.This high-level symposium gathered many ministries and agencies, the representatives of which were active in discussion and had disputes especially over“abuse of right”in Article 4 and the prohibitive right of broadcasting organizations in the Draft for First Deliberation. The author suggested in his speech amending“right licensing royalties” in Article 53 to “right royalties”, which was accepted by the Draft for Second Deliberation[1]and the Draft for Voting[2].The reason is that a copyright is circulated by means of licensing, transfer,inheritance and pledge registration,and the original expression is too narrow.
As a matter of fact,when the NCA openly solicited public opinions in March 2012,the CWWCS suggested that in case of calculating the amount of infringement damages, where the actual losses of the right holder and the illegal gains of the infringer are both difficult to calculate,the statutory damages should not be directly applied,and the“right transaction cost”should be added to provide the right holder with more initiatives and convenience in right protection,that is, “the right holder can request a claim for damages on the basis of a reasonable multiple of actual losses of the right holder,illegal gains of the infringer or right transaction cost, or less than RMB 1 million”.That is a great breakthrough as compared with the current Copyright Law.
In August 2020,the Copyright Law(the Amended Draft)was deliberated for the second time at the 23rd session of the Standing Committee of the 13th NPC.Public opinions were solicited for the second time later.More than 2100 opinions and suggestions were received from 600-plus netizens.(https://www.daowen.com)
In October 2020,the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPCSC held a symposium to solicit opinions on the Amended Draft from relevant departments, collective copyright management organizations,enterprises and experts.
In November 2020,the Legislative Af fairs Commission of the NPCSC convened an assessment meeting to invite some representatives of the NPC, copyright owners, experts and scholars, local copyright authorities, collective copyright management organizations, and relevant enterprises to assess the feasibility of essential systems and regulations,timing of law promulgation, social ef fects of law enforcement and potential problems.That was the last symposium on the revision of the Copyright Law draft held by the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPCSC.Participants unanimously opined that after a decade-long revision of the Copyright Law,the current Draft for Voting has responded to many concerns of the society and is relatively mature,and should be submitted to the NPCSC for deliberation and adoption as soon as possible.
According to the head of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPCSC,after receiving the Copyright Law(Amended Draft)submitted by the State Council in 2020,the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPCSC has held ten large-scale symposia to collect opinions from the drafting authorities, relevant central authorities and departments,judicial authorities,people's organizations,collective copyright management organizations, relevant enterprises, experts and scholars,and has solicited public opinions.All the opinions were carefully sorted out and actively adopted after studies.The revision was in line with the spirits of scientific legislation,democratic legislation and law-based legislation,and opinions had been solicited from the public through various routes during the whole process of law revision.
On 11 November 2020, the Decision on Amending the Copyright Law was deliberated and adopted at the 23rd session of the Standing Committee of the 13th NPC, marking the completion of the decade-long third revision of the Copyright Law,and will come into force as of 1 June 2021.
The third revision involves a variety of amendments and improvements with focus on such issues as perfecting the definition of works, strengthening copyright protection in cyberspace, implementing punitive damages, enhancing penalties for infringement, strengthening links with other laws, fulfilling relevant international treaties obligations,strengthening administrative enforcement and technical protection, in order to strengthen copyright protection,promote the dissemination of works and industrial development, and improve the efficiency of governance in copyright field,and boost the prosperity and development of cultural and scientific undertakings, and conform to China's economic and social development at the current stage.