Legal liabilities and enforcement measures on infringement

Where a copyright or a copyright-related right is infringed, the infringer shall compensate for the actually injury suffered by the right holder; where the actual injury is difficult to compute, the damages shall be paid on the basis of the unlawful income of the infringer. The amount of damages shall also include the appropriate fees paid by the right holder to stop the infringing act.

Where the right holder's actual injury or infringer's unlawful income cannot be determined, the People's Court shall Judge the damages not exceeding RMB 500, 00 depending on the circumstances of the infringing act.

A copyright owner or owner of a copyright-related right who has evidence to establish that another person is committing or will commit an act of infringing his right, which could cause irreparable injury to his legitimate rights and interests if the act is not stopped immediately, may apply to the People's Court for ordering cessation of the related act and for taking the measures for property preservation before instituting legal proceedings.

The provisions of Articles 93 to 96 and 99 of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China shall apply when the People's Court handles the application referred to in the preceding paragraph.

For the purpose of preventing an infringing act and under the circumstance where the evidence could be lost or is difficult to obtain afterwards, the copyright owner or the owner of a copyright-related right may apply to the People's Court for evidence preservation before initiating legal proceedings.

The People's Court must make the decision within forty-eight hours after it accepts an application; the measures of preservation shall be taken without delay if it is decided to do so.

The People's Court may order the applicant to provide a guaranty, if the latter fails to do so, the Court shall reject the application.

Where the applicant fails to institute legal proceedings within fifteen days after the People's Court adopted the measures of preservation, the latter shall terminate the measures of preservation.

The People's Court hearing a case may confiscate the unlawful income, infringing reproductions and materials used for committing the illegal act of infringement of copyright or copyright-related rights.

The publisher or producer of a reproduction who cannot prove that his publication or production has been authorized, the distributor of a reproduction or the renter of the reproduction of a cinematographic work, a work created by virtue of an analogous method of film production, computer software, sound recording or video recording who cannot prove that his distributed or rented reproduction has been from a lawful source, shall bear legal liability.

A party who fails to fulfill his contractual obligations, or executes them in a manner that is not in conformity with the agreed conditions of the contract, shall bear civil liability in accordance with the relevant provisions of the General Principles of the Civil Law of the People's Republic of China, the Contract Law of the People's Republic of China and other relevant laws and regulations.

A dispute over copyright may be settle by mediation. lt may also be submitted for arbitration to a copyright arbitration body under a written arbitration agreement concluded between the parties or under the arbitration clause in the contract.

Any party may institute proceedings directly in the People's Court in the absence of a written arbitration agreement or in the absence of an arbitration clause in the contract.