Study On The Legal Protection Of The Copyright Of Folklore

Since the 21st century, the intangible cultural heritage has attracted the widespread attention in the international stage. All of the countries make lots of the relative legal studies to protect their intangible cultural heritage. As an important part of the intangible cultural heritage, the folk literature and art has not been the major concern, so the research about folk literature and art is very little. However, with the development of the society, the folk literature and art has the undoubted important value in politics, economy, culture and even the comprehensive national power under the background of the economic globalization, at the same time, it has been so widely used in commerce that leads to an increasing number of infringement disputes. Therefore, China's protection of the traditional folk literature and art is facing a very serious situation and needs to get more protection. In the current situation, many countries and international organizations have been making the legislation of the authorship protection of folk literary and art, and China is no exception. All scholars have contributed to the legislation of the authorship protection of folk literature and art. But it is a pity that our country and even the other countries in the world still have much controversy for the subjects of rights, the protected mode; especially, the controversy in the protected mode affects the legislative process of the folk literature and art. The definition of the protected mode is particularly important, because it not only affects the protected mode of national legislation, but also is the fundamental prerequisite for other issues to be resolved. Therefore, based on the ample review, analysis and reference for the legislation achievements in other countries and the relevant international organizations, this article puts forward the protected mode suiting to the particularity of folk literature and art with the combination of our country's existing legislation and judicial practice, namely, the folk literature and art copyright protection mode, and then analyzes and explains the related issues and constitutions in detail. This paper is divided into four parts except for introduction and conclusion.The first part is an overview of folk literature and art, specifically including the concept and features. To study folk literature and art copyright protection, first of all, one should make clear the definition, the differences between folk literature and art and other related concepts, and the characteristics.The second part is the complete introduction on the protection status of folk literature and art, including the domestic and foreign conservation parts. The foreign conservation part is divided into the countries'conservation status and international organizations protection status, while the countries'protection is elaborated from both the developing countries and the developed ones. Most countries are in favor for using copyright law to protect folk literature and art. On reviewing the related laws in China, the author believes that it is feasible to protect the folk literature and art using the copyright law.The third part discuses the value of folk literature and art and the reasons for selecting copyright law to be the protection. Folk literature and art has important value on the political, economic and cultural significance. In view of its important value, it urgently needs developing the legal protection approach of folk literature and art. Based on the comprehensive analysis of all factors, the author used the copyright system to protect folk literature and art. And the reasons for selecting the copyright law to protect traditional folk literature and art are relatively ample, which is shown in detail in the article by three points.The fourth part is the comprehensive introduction of the constitutions of copyright protection for folk literature and art, including the subject of right, the object of right, the right content, violations as well as the related legal responsibility. The right content includes both personal and property rights. Through the analysis of these issues, the article puts forward some suggestions and ideas which can make some contributions to the legal system of copyright protection about the folk literature and art.In view of the richness of folk literature and art, China must make a positive response to protect the rich resources of folk literature and art better, to prevent violations by other countries and abuse of folk literature and art by other individuals or organizations and also should improve the protection for folk literature and art from legislation. Only in this way can make our rich and varied folk literature and art can be effectively used and developed.