China -  Chinese law firm

I heard there will be a new Copyright Law. What will be different about it? Why is it being changed?

There will be a new Copyright Law soon. It is being changed because some of the clauses in the present Copyright Law are inadequate in protecting the intellectual property rights of Copyright holders. The new law will have a number of substantial improvements. The new law, or amendments, will include the author's Right of Rental. This is significant because businesses that wish to rent out a work, such as a video movie, will first have to obtain permission from the author or holder of the Copyright.

The new law will also force radio and television stations, who publish works for non-commercial reasons, to pay remuneration to Copyright holders, whereas before they were not required to.

According to the present law, any person who translates a work from the Han language to a minority language, does not need to give remuneration to the copyright holder of the work. This does not correspond with international laws and will be amended to only include works done by Chinese nationals.

Another provision will probably be added allowing for the use of "Preliminary Injunctions." This means that if a Copyright holder believes his Copyright to be infringed, he can obtain a court order ordering the halting of the infringement before the case goes to court.

Another very important provision allows for the establishment of collective Copyright administration bodies. This will allow for more effective Copyright protection. The new Copyright Law will also incorporate the growing importance of the Internet. Under the new law, Internet Copyrights will be equally protected as traditional Copyrights.

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