More legal bases are provided to copyright holders...
All sectors of society have criticized the low damages for copyright infringement, unchanged statutory damages for 30 years,and the rule of full compensation for actual losses for a long time.The third revision of the Copyright Law not only raises the upper limit of the statutory damages to RMB 5 million,but also sets the lower limit of the statutory damages at RMB 500 just like the trademark law and the patent law.It also stipulates that in case of willful infringement and serious circumstances,the court can award the damages in an amount 1 to 5 times the actual losses of the right holder,the illegal gains of the infringer and the right royalties of the right holder.That is a vital measure to strengthen intellectual property protection, establish punitive damages system and increase the cost for infringement.
The punitive damages system and improved statutory damages system in the newly revised Copyright Law will have a strong deterrent impact on potential infringement and piracy and effectively curb infringements and piracy；the right holders will be increasingly aware of and more confident about active rights protection；parties concerned in copyright infringement disputes will seek for diversified manners,such as mediation,reconciliation and arbitration,to resolve disputes, which will help resolve a large number of social contradictions arising from copyright disputes and reduce the pressure on a limited number of judicial authorities；the compliance with other intellectual property laws such as the Trademark Law,the Patent Law and the Anti-Unfair Competition Law will help uniformly attack intellectual property infringement and piracy in the whole society and build up a strict,overall and strong IP protection pattern.(https://www.daowen.com)
In order to solve the difficulty in evidence adduction in a digital network environment,the newly revised Copyright Law sets forth the provision on spoliation of evidence.Where the right holder has fulfilled the necessary burden of proof and the account books and materials relating to infringement are mostly kept by the infringer,in order to determine the amount of damages,the court may order the infringer to provide the account books and materials relating to infringement； and where the infringer provides no or false account books and materials,the court may determine the amount of damages with reference to the claim and evidence provided by the right holder.
The newly revised Copyright Law strengthens the technical protection measures and right management information of copyright holders.When applying for pre-litigation property preservation with the court,the right holder may request the court to order the infringer to perform certain acts or prohibit the infringer from performing certain acts,which enhances the power of the competent copyright authorities and strengthen law enforcement. Those provisions are conducive to safeguarding rights according to law on the part of copyright owners and collective copyright management organizations,as well as regulating the market order.