引起热议 人大代表和专家热议著作权法修正草案

人大代表和专家热议著作权法修正草案  

National legislators and experts on intellectual property rights have weled stronger protection of online copyrights and harsher punishments for copycats in newly released draft amendments to existing law while suggesting that some new types of infringements in cyberspace be further studied.
"The current Chinese Copyright Law has neither caught up with economic
technological and cultural growth nor solved new problems in the industry
" said Li Rui
a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. "So it's urgent and necessary to revise the law."
Li's remarks follow the advice of the NPC Standing Committee
the country's top legislature
which deliberated on draft revisions to the law late last month.
李锐委员的意见和人大常委会的建议如出一辙。人大常委会正在审议上个月末提交的著作权法修正案草案。
The current law
which has been in effect for 30 years
had played an important role in encouraging innovation and protecting copyrights
Li said
"but it cannot give more legal support to new types of online copyrights
let alone end related disputes
even though it was amended in 2001 and 2010".
Statistics released by the China Inter Neork Information Center last month showed that there were 904 million inter users across the country by March
up 75.08 million pared with the end of 2018.
While witnessing a significant rise in the number of izens
the nation is also seeing a big increase of IP-related conflicts online
especially copyright disputes.
From Sept 9
2018
to March 31
for example
the Beijing Inter Court filed 42
121 cases on online IP rights
more than 99 percent of which involved online copyright issues.
"Online copyrights need stronger and quicker protection because more works
including novels
pictures and videos
are emerging online
and because of how fast information spreads on the inter
" said Kang Lixia
a lawyer specializing in IP-related disputes at Beijing Conzen Law Firm.
"If the online infringement cannot be stopped in a timely manner
the works' creators will face greater economic losses
as collecting evidence online for them is also a big challenge
" she said
adding that highlighting protections for online copyrights in the latest draft is "essential and urgent".
The draft's full text has been published on the website of the NPC Standing Committee
which is soliciting opinions from the public and authorities.
Kang also applauded the increased punishments in the draft
saying they posed a bigger threat to copyright violators and a more effective measure against piracy.
The draft stipulates that if a copyright owner clarifies the cost of using his or her works
people using the works without paying or those deliberately infringing on the copyright will be ordered to pay five times the cost in pensation.
In cases where the cost of infringing on a copyright is not clear or when the loss to copyright holders and benefits gained by infringers cannot be determined
the draft raises the ceiling for pensation that pirates will have to pay to 5 million yuan
up from 500
000 yuan.
"The harsher punishment is fact-based and will improve the innovation
protection and application of copyrights
" said Li Xueyong
another member of the NPC Standing Committee.
But he added that the draft still needs to be further amended
balancing copyright protection
technological innovation and inter development.
National legislator Yang Zhijin agreed
saying "we should give more respect to copyrights and also prevent those rights from being abused.
Liu Xiuwen
another lawmaker
said there were a few problems -- such as how to protect copyrights on livestreaming platforms and whether works made by robots should be safeguarded -- that still had no clear solution
which requires us to conduct further studies and promote the draft in a timely manner".