Author:IPR in C… Source:IPR in China Hits:896 Time:2012/7/2
A symposium on copyright protection for collated ancient books in the second version of the draft amendment of the Copyright Law was convened in Jingmingyuan Hotel in Beijing on the afternoon of June 26.
"The second version of the draft amendment of the Copyright Law is expected to be released at the end of June or at the beginning of July," said Wang Ziqiang, head of the national working taskforce specializing in the amendment of the Copyright Law and director of the Department of Laws and Regulations under the National Copyright Administration, adding that of all the 88 articles in the primary amended version, only seven remain unchanged this time.
In respect of the copyright protection of collated ancient books, Wang commented that there will not be any special offers, whereas representatives from publishing houses of collated ancient books wanted the taskforce to give more consideration in this regard.
Wang said that since the primary amended draft was released on March 31, besides 49 ministries and commissions, six academic and research institutions, three judicial organs, 29 administrative departments for copyright, 23 industry associations, and over 1,500 public entities and individuals, as many as 160 entities including industries and governmental departments from Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and China’s Taiwan Province have also sent back their responses, covering 81 articles of the total eight chapters.
Wang continued that most of the feedbacks are related to Article 46, Article 60 and Article 78, as well as Article 69 concerning ISP's liabilities.
At the symposium, the spotlight was put on Article 13 in the primary amended version, which reads as follows: Copyright in a work derived from adaptation, translation, annotation or arrangement of a preexistent work shall vest in the adapter, translator, annotator or arranger, the utilization of which, however, shall be authorized by both the copyright owner of the preexistent work and the adapter, translator, annotator or arranger, and shall be paid compensation.
Attendees representing the interests of the publishing houses of collated ancient books recommended to add "right to adapt, right to arrange, and right to translate" into this article, while Wang disagreed with them because he defined adaption, translation and arrangement as approaches rather than rights of compiling ancient books.
"We expect the amended Copyright Law and its implementation regulation could highlight the protection of collated ancient books which concern inheriting and carrying forward our nation's excellent masterpieces and traditional culture," said Li Yan, Director of Ancient Books Publishing Committee of the Publishers Association of China and General Manager of Zhonghua Book Company, adding that a high-quality ancient book is collated with gigantic efforts of compilers, whose achievements should be greatly respected and protected.
Wang emphasized that there will be no special offers for the protection on collated ancient books because the copyright protection issues of those books have already been covered by the amended draft.
