On 16 November 2020, five days after the adoption of the third amendment to the Copyright Law (for further details please see "Third amendment to Copyright Law"), the Supreme People's Court promulgated the Opinions on Strengthening the Protection of Copyright and Copyright-Related Rights (Fa Fa [2020] 42). The opinions took effect on the same date.

Development of emerging industries

To encourage the development of emerging industries, Article 1 of the opinions aims to:

  • increase protection for creators' rights;
  • promote the creation and dissemination of intellectual achievements; and
  • balance the interests of creators, disseminators and the public.

Technological developments

In light of the fast development of the Internet, AI and Big Data, Article 5 of the opinions highlights the importance of:

  • ascertaining the subject matter of copyright cases based on the parameters established by the Copyright Law; and
  • adjudicating cases which involve:
    • the live streaming of sports and online games; and
    • data infringement.

Copyright trials

To improve the quality and efficiency of copyright trials, the opinions:

  • promote pilot projects in which cases are categorised according to their complexity to enable simple cases to be fast tracked and adjudicated more quickly (Article 2);
  • enable the use of novel approaches (eg, blockchain) to preserve, fix and submit evidence (Article 2);
  • apply the 'owner presumption' principle (Articles 3 and 4), whereby:
    • a natural or legal person or unincorporated organisation which signs a work, performance or audio product in the usual manner is presumed to be the copyright holder of such work, performance or audio product unless it is proved otherwise; and
    • a presumed copyright holder need not provide additional documentary evidence unless the defendant provides contrary evidence; and
  • promote the good-faith principle (Articles 9 and 10) to discourage bad-faith litigation and fraudulent acts, including:
    • falsifying, concealing and destroying evidence;
    • making false statements or affidavits; and
    • producing false signatures or authentication statements.

The opinions also reiterate:

  • how to calculate damages and reimbursement of copyright holders' reasonable costs to stop infringement (Article 7);
  • the circumstances which entail the destruction of infringing copies and any materials or tools primarily used for the production or manufacture of such infringing copies (Article 6); and
  • how to determine wilful infringement where an infringer repeats an infringement act in defiance of a prior settlement agreement reached with the copyright holder regarding such act (Article 8).