Adopted in the 15th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Seventh National People's Congress on September 7, 1990 and revised in the 24th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress on October 27, 2001 in accordance with the Decision on Revision of the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China for the first time and in the 13th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on February 26, 2010 in accordance with the Decision on Revision of the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China for the second time

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 other 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 include works of literature, art, natural science, social science, engineering technology and the like made in the following forms:

(1) written works;

(2) oral works;

(3) musical, dramatic, quyi, choreographic and acrobatic art works;

(4) works of fine art and architecture

(5) photographic works;

(6) cinematographic works and works created in a way similar to cinematography

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

(8) computer software;

(9) other works as provided in laws and administrative regulations.

Article 4 Copyright owners, in exercising their copyright, shall not violate the Constitution or laws or infringe upon the public interests. The publication and dissemination of works shall be subject to the administration and supervision of the state.

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) news on current affairs;

(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 copyright administration department of the people's government of each province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government shall be responsible for the administration of copyright within its own jurisdiction.

Article 8 Copyright owners and the obligees related to copyright may authorize a collective management organization of copyright to exercise the copyright or the rights related to copyright. The collective management organization of copyright may, after being authorized, claim rights in its own name for the copyright owners and the obligees related to copyright, and may, as a party concerned, participate in the litigation and arbitration activities involved with copyright or the rights related to copyright.

A collective management organization of copyright shall be a non-profit organization, and the method of its establishment, its rights and obligations, the collection and distribution of the royalty for copyright licensing, as well as the supervision and management over it shall be separately provided by the State Council.

Chapter II Copyright

Section I Copyright Owners and Their Rights Article 9 "Copyright owners" shall include:

(1) authors;

(2) other citizens, legal entities and 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, or re-shooting, 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 nongratuitously permit others to temporarily exploit a cinematographic work, a work created in a way similar to cinematography or computer software, unless the computer software is not the main object under the 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 cinematographic 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 projector, episcope, etc., the works of fine art, photographic works, cinematographic works and works created in a way similar to cinematography, etc. reappear publicly;

(11) the right of broadcasting, that is, the right to publicly broadcast or disseminate works by wireless means, to disseminate broadcast works to the public by wired dissemination or rebroadcast, and to disseminate broadcast works to the public by audio amplifier or other similar instruments for transmission of signs, sounds or images;

(12) the right of information network dissemination, that is, the right to provide the public with works by wired or wireless means, so as to make the public able to respectively obtain the works at the individually selected time and place;

(13) the right of production, that is, the right to fix works on the carrier by cinematography or in a way similar to cinematography;

(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;

(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 the 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 the contract or in accordance with the relevant provisions in this Law.

Section II 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 citizen 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 organization, such legal entity or organization shall be the author of the work.

The citizen, legal entity or organization whose name is affixed to a work shall, without the contrary proof, be the author of the work.

Article 12 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 copyright in the original work is not infringed upon.