Updating rules to keep up with contemporary times
GUO Jingming and Yu Zheng, two of China’s top movie and TV producers and directors, went viral recently in belated apologies regarding instances of plagiarism.
Both men were required by separate court rulings years ago to publish the apologies, but neither ever did. Their late adherence reflects the latest amendment to China’s Copyright Law, which was enacted in November and comes into force this June.
It is the third time in 30 years that the law has been amended. The change encompasses new forms of work and recognizes development of new technologies.
For example, it widens the definition of “cinematographic works” to include “audiovisual works” in the digital era.
It also significantly increases the penalties for law violators about 10-fold to a maximum 5 million yuan ( US$706,000).
China has noticeably accelerated legislative work on new laws and amendments to replace outdated ones in recent years.
Most recently, Amendment XI to the Criminal Law was passed on December 26. A major change is to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 12 in cases of murder or aggravated assault that leads to death.
The amendment also marks the first time that China formally criminalizes doping. Responding to the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s top legislature announced early last year that it would prioritize legislation on public health.
China has a plethora of laws on public health. Most have withstood the test of COVID-19 and played a positive role, according to Zhang Yesui, spokesperson for the third session of the 13th National People’s Congress, held last year. However, he noted, there are some weak spots and shortcomings in the legal framework that need to be rectified.
The congress’ annual work report cites a wide range of public health-related laws, including the Wildlife Protection Law, the Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, the Frontier Health and Quarantine Law and the Emergency Response Law.