(Adopted at the Fifteenth Session of the Standing Committee of the Seventh National People's Congress on September 7, 1990 and amended for the first time in accordance with the Decision of the 24th Session of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress Concerning Amendment to the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China on October 27, 2001; amended for the second time in accordance with the Decision of the 13th Session of the Standing Committee of the Eleventh National People's Congress Concerning Amendment to the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China on February 26, 2010; amended for the third time in accordance with Decision of the 23rd session of Standing Committee of the  Thirteenth National People's Congress on Amending the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China on November 11, 2020)

Contents

Chapter I General Provisions

Chapter II Copyright

　　Section 1 Copyright Owners and Their Rights

　　Section 2 Ownership of Copyright

　　Section 3 Term of Protection

　　Section 4 Limitations on Rights

Chapter III Copyright Licensing Contracts and Copyright Transfer Contracts

Chapter IV Copyright-Related Rights

　　Section 1 Publication of Books, Newspapers and Periodicals

　　Section 2 Performance

　　Section 3 Sound Recordings and Video Recordings

　　Section 4 Broadcasting by A Radio Station or Television Station

Chapter V Protection of Copyright and Copyright-Related Rights

Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1. This Law is enacted, in accordance with the Constitution for the purposes of protecting the copyright of authors in their literary, artistic and scientific works and rights related to copyright, of encouraging the creation and dissemination of works which would contribute to the construction of socialist spiritual and material civilization, and of promoting the development and flourishing of socialist culture and sciences.

Article 2. Works of Chinese citizens, legal entities or unincorporated organizations, whether published or not, shall enjoy copyright in accordance with this Law.

Any work of a foreigner or stateless person which enjoys copyright under an agreement concluded between the country to which the author belongs or in which the author permanently resides and China, or under an international treaty to which both countries are parties, shall be protected by this Law.

Any work of a foreigner or stateless person published for the first time and within the territory of China shall enjoy copyright in accordance with this Law.

Any work of an author from a country not having concluded an agreement with China or entered into an international treaty jointly with China or of a stateless person, which is published for the first time in a country as a member of the international treaty into which China has entered or published in a member country and non- member country at the same time, shall be protected by this Law.

Article 3. "Works" mentioned in this Law shall refer to ingenious intellectual achievements in the fields of literature, art and science that can be presented in a certain form:

(1) written works;

(2) oral works;

(3) musical, dramatic, quyi^[ⅰ], choreographic and acrobatic art works;

(4) works of fine art and architecture

(5) photographic works;

(6) audiovisual works

(7) drawings of engineering designs and product designs, maps, sketches and other graphic works as well as model works;

(8) computer software; and

(9) other intellectual achievements that meet the characteristics of works.

Article 4. When exercising rights, copyright owners and copyright-related right holders shall not violate the Constitution and laws, or damage public interests. The state shall supervise and administrate the publication and dissemination of works according to the law.

Article 5. This Law shall not be applicable to:

(1) laws, regulations, resolutions, decisions and orders of state organs; other documents of legislative, administrative or judicial nature; and their official translations;

(2) simple factual information; and

(3) calendars, numerical tables, forms of general use and formulas.

Article 6. Regulations for the protection of copyright in expressions of folklore shall be separately established by the State Council.

Article 7. The copyright administration department under the State Council shall be responsible for the nationwide administration of copyright. The local copyright authorities at or above the county level shall be responsible for the administration of copyright within its own jurisdiction.

Article 8. Copyright owners and copyright-related right holders may authorize a collective management organization of copyright to exercise the copyright or the rights related to copyright. As a non-for-profit legal entity, a collective management organization of copyrights lawfully formed may, with authorization, claim rights in its own name for a copyright owner and a copyright-related right holder, and may, as a party concerned, participate in the litigation, arbitration, and mediation activities involved with copyright or the rights related to copyright.

A collective management organization of copyrights shall collect royalties from users based on authorization. The standards for the collection of royalties shall be determined by the collective management organization of copyrights and the user representative through negotiation. If the negotiation fails, the parties may apply to the copyright authority of the state for a ruling. A party who is not satisfied with the ruling may institute a lawsuit with the people's court; and the parties may directly institute a lawsuit with the people's court as well.

A collective management organization of copyrights shall disclose the collection and transfer of royalties, the withdrawal and use of management fees, the unallocated royalties, and other overall situation to the public on a regular basis, and establish a right information inquiry system for inquiry by right owners, right holders and users. The copyright authority of the state shall supervise and manage collective management organizations of copyrights in accordance with the law.

For collective management organizations of copyrights, their methods of formation, rights and obligations, and collection and distribution of royalties, as well as supervision and management thereof shall be separately prescribed by the State Council.

Chapter II Copyright

Section 1 Copyright Owners and Their Rights

Article 9. "Copyright owners" shall include:

(1) authors; and

(2) other natural persons, legal entities and unincorporated organizations enjoying copyright in accordance with this Law.

Article 10. "Copyright" shall include the following personal rights and property rights:

(1) the right of publication, that is, the right to decide whether to make a work available to the public;

(2) the right of authorship, that is, the right to claim authorship and to have the author's name mentioned in connection with the work;

(3) the right of alteration, that is, the right to alter or authorize others to alter one's work;

(4) the right of integrity, that is, the right to protect one's work against distortion and mutilation;

(5) the right of reproduction, that is, the right to produce one or more copies of the work by means of printing, Xeroxing, rubbing, sound recording, video recording, duplicating, re-shooting, or digital way etc.;

(6) the right of distribution, that is, the right to provide the public with original copies or reproduced copies of works by means of selling or donating;

(7) the right of lease, that is, the right to non-gratuitously permit others to temporarily use the original or copy of audiovisual works and computer software, unless the computer software is not the main object of lease;

(8) the right of exhibition, that is, the right to publicly display the original copies or reproduced copies of works of fine art and photographic works;

(9) the right of performance, that is, the right to publicly perform works, and to publicly transmit the performance of works by various means;

(10) the right of projection, that is, the right to make, by such technical equipment as projectors, episcopes, etc., the works of fine art, photographic works, audiovisual works, etc. reappear publicly;

(11) the right of broadcasting, that is, the right to publicly broadcast or disseminate works by wired or wireless means, and to disseminate broadcast works to the public by audio amplifier or other similar instruments for transmission of signs, sounds or images, excluding the right as prescribed in item (12) of this paragraph;

(12) the right of dissemination via information networks, that is, the right to provide works that may be obtained by the public at the time and place selected by the public by wired or wireless means;

(13) the right of production, that is, the right to fix works on the carrier by way of producing audiovisual works;

(14) the right of adaptation, that is, the right to modify a work for the purpose of creating a new work of original creation;

(15) the right of translation, that is, the right to transform the language of a work into another language;

(16) the right of compilation, that is, the right to choose or edit some works or fragments of works so as to form a new work; and

(17) other rights which shall be enjoyed by the copyright owners.

A copyright owner may permit others to exercise the rights provided in Items 5 through 17 of the preceding paragraph, and may receive remuneration as agreed upon in a contract or in accordance with the relevant provisions in this Law.

A copyright owner may wholly or partially transfer the rights provided in Items 5 through 17 of Paragraph 1 of this Article, and may receive remuneration as agreed upon in a contract or in accordance with the relevant provisions in this Law.

Section 2 Ownership of Copyright

Article 11. Except otherwise provided in this Law, the copyright in a work shall belong to its author.

The author of a work is the natural person who has created the work.

Where a work is created according to the intention and under the supervision and responsibility of a legal entity or another unincorporated organization, such legal entity or unincorporated organization shall be the author of the work.

Article 12. The natural person, legal entity or unincorporated organization whose name is affixed to a work shall, without contrary proof, be the author of the work and have corresponding rights in the work.

Authors and other copyright owners may register their works with a registry recognized by the copyright authority of the state.

The copyright-related rights shall be governed, mutatis mutandis, by the provisions of the preceding two paragraphs.

Article 13. Where a work is created by adaptation, translation, annotation or arrangement of a pre-existing work, the copyright in the work thus created shall be enjoyed by the adapter, translator, annotator or arranger, provided that the exercise of such copyright shall not infringe upon the copyright in the original work.

Article 14. Where a work is created jointly by two or more co-authors, the copyright in the work shall be enjoyed jointly by those co-authors. Co-authorship may not be claimed by anyone who has not participated in the creation of the work.

The copyright of a work of joint authorship shall be exercised by co-authors upon consensus; and where no consensus has been reached and there is no justified reason, no party shall prevent another party from exercising rights other than transferring and permitting others' exclusive use, and pledging, but the proceeds obtained shall be reasonably distributed to all co-authors.

If a work of joint authorship can be separated into independent parts and exploited separately, each co-author shall be entitled to independent copyright in the parts that he has created, provided that the exercise of such copyright does not infringe upon the copyright in the joint work as a whole.

Article 15. A work created by compilation shall refer to the work which is compiled of some works, fragments of works or the data or other materials not constituting a work, and the choice or layout of the contents of which embodies the original creation. The copyright of the compilation work shall be enjoyed by the compiler, provided that the exercise of such copyright does not infringe upon the copyright of the pre-existing works included in the compilation.

Article 16. To use a work produced by adaptation, translation, annotation, sorting, or compilation of a pre-existing work for publication, performance, and production of an audiovisual work, the permission of the copyright owner of the work and the copyright owner of the original work shall be obtained and remuneration shall be paid to the copyright owners.

Article 17. The copyright of cinematographic works and TV play works in audiovisual works shall be enjoyed by producers, but screenwriters, directors, photographers, lyricists, composers, and other authors shall enjoy the right of authorship and have the right to obtain remuneration as agreed upon in the contracts signed with producers.

The ownership of the copyright of an audiovisual work other than those specified in the preceding paragraph shall be agreed upon by the parties; and where there is no agreement or the agreement is unclear, the copyright shall be enjoyed by the producer, but the author shall have the right of authorship and of receiving remuneration.

The authors of script, music, and other works that are incorporated in audiovisual works and may be used separately shall be entitled to exercise their copyright independently.

Article 18. A work created by a natural person when fulfilling the tasks assigned to him by a legal entity or another unincorporated organization shall be deemed to be a work made for hire. Unless otherwise provided in Paragraph 2 of this Article, the copyright of such a work shall be enjoyed by the author, but the legal entity or unincorporated organization shall have a priority right to exploit the work within the scope of its professional activities. During the two years after the completion of the work, the author shall not, without the consent of the legal entity or organization, authorize a third party to exploit the work in the same way as the legal entity or organization does.

In the following cases the author of a work made for hire shall enjoy the right of authorship, while the legal entity or unincorporated organization shall enjoy other rights included in the copyright and may reward the author:

(1) drawings of engineering designs and product designs, sketch maps, computer software and other works made for hire, which are created mainly with the materials and technical resources of the legal entity or unincorporated organization and under its responsibility;

(2) works made for hire created by employees of newspapers, periodical presses, news agencies, radio stations, and television stations; and

(3) works made for hire of which the copyright is, in accordance with the laws or administrative regulations or as agreed upon in a contract, enjoyed by the legal entity or unincorporated organization.

Article 19. The ownership of copyright in a commissioned work shall be agreed upon in a contract between the commissioning and the commissioned parties. In the absence of such a contract or of an explicit agreement in the contract, the copyright in such a work shall belong to the commissioned party.

Article 20. The transfer of the ownership of an original work shall not change the ownership of the copyright of the work, but the exhibition rights of an original art work and photography work shall be enjoyed by the owner of the original work.

Where an author transfers the ownership of an original unpublished art work or photographic work to another, the transferee's exhibition of the original does not constitute an infringement upon the author's right of publication.

Article 21. Where the copyright of a work belongs to a natural person, his rights in respect of the work as provided in Items 5 through 17 of Paragraph 1 of Article 10 of this Law shall, after his death, during the term of protection provided in this Law, be transferred in accordance with the law.

Where the copyright of a work belongs to a legal entity or another unincorporated organization, its rights in respect of the work as provided in Items 5 through 17 of Paragraph 1 of Article 10 of this Law shall, after the change or the termination of the status of the legal entity or unincorporated organization, during the term of protection provided in this Law, be enjoyed by the succeeding legal entity or unincorporated organization which has taken over the rights and obligations of the previous legal entity or unincorporated organization, or, in the absence of such succeeding legal entity or unincorporated organization, by the State.

Section 3 Term of Protection

Article 22. The rights of authorship, alteration and integrity of an author shall be unlimited in time.

Article 23. In respect of a work of a natural person, the term of protection of the right of publication and of the rights provided in Items 5 through 17 of Paragraph 1 of Article 10 of this Law shall be the lifetime of the author and fifty years after his death, expiring on December 31 of the fiftieth year after his death. In the case of a work of joint authorship, such term shall expire on December 31 of the fiftieth year after the death of the last surviving author.

In respect of a work of a legal entity or an unincorporated organization, and a work for hire whose copyright (excluding the right of authorship) is owned by a legal entity or an unincorporated organization, the term of protection of the right of publication shall be fifty years, expiring on December 31 of the fiftieth year after the completion of creation of the work; and the term of protection of the rights provided in Items 5 through 17 of Paragraph 1 of Article 10 of this Law shall be fifty years, expiring on December 31 of the fiftieth year after the first publication of the work, but if a work has not been published within fifty years after the completion of its creation, it shall no longer be protected by this Law.

In respect of an audiovisual work, the term of protection of the right of publication shall be fifty years, expiring on December 31 of the fiftieth year after the completion of creation of the work; and the term of protection of the rights provided in Items 5 through 17 of Paragraph 1 of Article 10 of this Law shall be fifty years, expiring on December 31 of the fiftieth year after the first publication of the work, but if a work has not been published within fifty years after the completion of its creation, it shall no longer be protected by this Law.

Section 4 Limitations on Rights

Article 24. In the following cases, a work may be exploited without the permission from, and without payment of remuneration to, the copyright owner, provided that the name or designation of the author and the title of the work are mentioned, the normal use of the work shall not be affected, and the lawful rights and interests of the copyright owner shall not be damaged unreasonably:

(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 news;

(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 copyright owner 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, adaptation, compilation, and broadcasting or reproduction, in a small quality 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, art museum or similar institution, for the purpose of the display or preservation of a copy of the work;

(9) performance of a published work free of charge, that is, with respect to the performance, neither fees are charged from the public nor the remuneration is paid to the performers, nor the performance is for profit;

(10) copying, drawing, photographing, or video recording of an artistic work located or on display in a public place;

(11) translation of a work published by a Chinese citizen, legal entity or unincorporated organization, which is created in the national common language and characters, into a minority nationality language for publication and distribution within the country;

(12) providing a published work for dyslexics in a barrier-free way through which they can perceive; and

(13) other circumstances prescribed by laws and administrative regulations.

The provisions of the preceding paragraph shall apply to limitations on copyright-related rights.

Article 25. Those who compile and publish textbooks for the purpose of implementing compulsory education or national educational planning of the state may,  published fragments of works, short written works, musical works, or single art works, photographic works, or graphic works may be compiled in the textbooks without permission of copyright owners, provided that remuneration is paid to the copyright owners according to the provisions, and the names or designations of authors, and titles of works are indicated, and other rights enjoyed by copyright owners in accordance with this Law are not infringed upon.

The provisions of the preceding paragraph shall apply to restrictions on copyright-related rights.

Chapter III Copyright Licensing Contracts and Copyright Transfer Contracts

Article 26. Anyone who exploits a work created by another shall conclude a licensing contract with the copyright owner, except the circumstances in which no permission is needed in accordance with the provisions of this Law.

A licensing contract shall include the following main contents:

(1) the category of the right to exploit the work covered by the license;

(2) the exclusive or non-exclusive nature of the right to exploit the work covered by the license;

(3) the territorial scope and term of the license;

(4) the standard of the remuneration and the method of payment;

(5) the liabilities for breach of the contract; and

(6) any other matter that contracting parties consider necessary.

Article 27. Transfer of a right provided in Items 5 through 17 of Paragraph 1 of Article 10 of this Law shall require conclusion of a contract in writing.

A copyright transfer contract shall include the following main contents:

(1) the title of the work;

(2) the category and territorial scope of the transferred right;

(3) the transfer price;

(4) the date and manner of payment of the transfer price;

(5) the liabilities for breach of the contract; and

(6) any other matter that the contracting parties consider necessary.

Article 28. Where the property rights in copyright are pledged, the pledgor and pledgee shall complete pledge registration according to the law.

Article 29. The other party may not, without permission from the copyright owner, exercise any right that is not explicitly licensed or transferred by the copyright owner in the licensing or transfer contract.

Article 30. The standards of remuneration for the exploitation of a work may be either agreed upon by the parties concerned or be made by the copyright administration department under the State Council in collaboration with other departments concerned. Where the parties concerned fail to reach a clear agreement, the remuneration shall be paid in accordance with the standards of remuneration made by the copyright administration department under the State Council in collaboration with other departments concerned.

Article 31. Publishers, performers, producers of sound recordings and video recordings, radio stations, television stations and other entities who or which exploit the works of others pursuant to the relevant provisions of this Law shall not infringe upon the authors' rights of authorship, alteration, and integrity, and rights for obtaining remuneration.