State Council, Collective Management of Copyright Regulations

Promulgated: December 28 2004
Effective: March 1 2005
Applicability: "Collective management of copyright" refers to the following activities carried out by a copyright collective management organization in its own name and centrally exercising the relevant rights of the rights owners with the rights owners' authorization: (1) conclusion of licensing contracts for copyright or related rights with users; (2) collection of copyright royalties from users; (3) delivery of royalties to rights owners; and (4) initiating litigation or arbitration proceedings, etc. involving copyright or related rights (Article 2).

Main contents: Copyright collective management organizations may carry out collective management of such rights provided by the Copyright Law as the right of performance, the right of projection, the right of broadcast, the right of rental, the right of communication via an information network and the right of reproduction that the rights owners encounter difficulties in the effective exercise thereof (Article 4). Right owners initiating the establishment of copyright collective management organizations shall not be less than 50 (Article 7). Copyright collective management organizations may not refuse to conclude copyright collective management contracts with rights owners complying with the entry requirements (Article 19). Right owners may not, within the period specified in the contract, itself or permit others to exercise the rights to be exercised by copyright collective management organizations as specified in the contract (Article 20). Foreigners or stateless persons may, through similar foreign organizations that have concluded agreements of mutual representation with Chinese copyright collective management organizations, authorize such Chinese organizations to manage their copyrights or related rights that they are entitled to enjoy in China according to law (Article 22). Copyright collective management organizations shall not conclude exclusive licensing contracts with users, and shall not decline users' requests with reasonable terms for conclusion of licensing contracts. Licensing contracts shall be valid for not more than two years, and may be renewed upon expiry (Article 23).
Related legislation: PRC Copyright Law (Revised), October 27 2001, CLP 2001 No.10 p53 and PRC Copyright Law Implementing Regulations, Aug 2 2002, CLP 2002 No.8 p75