著作权法修改草案引发争议

China's copyright law, which came into effect in 1990, has been amended twice -- in 2001 and 2010. The current revision is the third amendment.

But articles 46 and 48 of the draft have attracted the most criticism. Article 46 says three months after a song is publicly released, anyone is allowed to use it without seeking the songwriter's permission. Article 48 stipulates that those who profit from musical works written by others must pay a service fee to the copyright management organization one month after they start using them, regardless of whether the songwriter is a member of the organization.

Li Weixiang, deputy director of the Intellectual Property Law Service Committee at the Shenzhen Lawyers Association, believes such changes empower copyright management organizations such as the Music Copyright Society of China, but fail to regard copyrights as private rather than public rights.

"Reading the amended parts of the draft, I've found that the government has made copyright management a collectively owned right which belongs to certain organizations. But in fact, a copyright is an intellectual property right, which is part of an individual's private right. So, the protection of a private right should highlight songwriters' interests and the personal deals reached between the original artists and the users."

Ren Jie, a senior lawyer at Hisense Modern Law Firm in Guangdong province, says Article 46, which stipulates that it is not necessary to seek permission from songwriters before using their songs, breaches the Civil Law.

"Copyright in a broader sense is a civil right. According to the articles in China's Civil Law, a copyright owner is the main decision maker as to the ways of possessing, using and reaping benefits from his or her own property. So it would be a wrongful act for someone to use another's music before getting the consent of the songwriter, and it would infringe upon the copyright owners' civil right."

Ren also says after he carefully read the music copyright draft amendment, he found conflicting information in articles 8 and 48.

"Article 8 says a copyright owner can opt to commission relevant copyright management authorities to excise the right on his behalf. If a songwriter has such a choice, he or she might also express an unfavorable opinion about appointing a copyright management authority as their representative. This conflicts with Article 48 which stipulates that copyright management organizations can charge users a service fee despite whether the songwriter is a member of the organization or not."

The draft amendment sparked strong criticism from Chinese musicians and music associations after China's National Copyright Administration published it last week for public comment.

Earlier, the Guangdong Popular Music Association issued an open letter calling the amendment a disappointment because it failed to further protect the interests of copyright owners and argued that it deprived them of certain rights.

On the other side, Liu Ping, director of the Legal Department at the Music Copyright Society of China, is one of the revision's supporters. He told China Central Television that the amendment would better protect copyright owners and ensure they were paid by people who used their works. Liu said the draft law also doubled the compensation for copyright infringement from the current maximum amount of 500,000 yuan.

For CRI, I'm Yang Yong.