China is drafting its first internet-specific laws to protect
copyright on-line for the benefit of copyright owners both in China
and abroad. It follows concerns of confusion expressed last month
when China’s Supreme People’s Court ruled to extend existing
copyright laws to the internet.
Under the new proposal, fines will be substantially increased
from the limits set out in the country’s existing 10 year-old
copyright provisions.
Anyone who cancels or alters an author’s works without
permission shall be guilty of an offence. It will also be an
offence to break encryption set by copyright owners. In addition,
the property rights attributed to the copyright owner will be
strengthened.
The new legislation will also introduce a crime of deleting or
changing other people’s system access restrictions without
authorisation and cover illegal access to computer systems or
on-line works, according to a report in Friday’s South China
Morning Post.
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