A Legal Study On The Distribution Service Of Audio - Visual Products In International Copyright Trade

The distribution service of audiovisual products under international copyright trade is one of the emerging hot legal issues in recent years. This paper has analyzed and discussed the nature and the international legal structure of the distribution service of audiovisual products, as well as the exceptions and the related issues China is confronting.International copyright trade ("ICT") is the trade related to the economic rights of copyright. Under the background of ICT, the audiovisual products license and transfer its copyright transnational, and distribute within a certain territory. The forms of distribution may be good or service trade. Audiovisual products are a series of display, transfer, transmit or copy by certain equipments presentations which have copyright. The determination, protection and implementation of its copyright have influence on the effectiveness and efficiency of distribution. In respect of the distribution service of audiovisual products under ICT, the basic international legal system contains the copyright content which the audiovisual inner have and the good and service content which the distribution may concern. In the discussion of general obligation, the former engaged as national treatment where the latter engaged both national treatment and most-favored-nation. In the discussion of obligation in detail, the copyright and neighboring right engaged as the protection and implementing system where the goods trade has no specific system and the service trade only has sub-sectoral commitment. For the exceptions of the audiovisual products distribution under ICT, there are exceptions of IP, goods and service trade, and cultural exceptions. The IP exception mainly means the copyright and neighboring right exceptions in multilateral international treaties which is mainly principles, the distribution-concerned goods and service trade mainly the exception of public moral or public order which engaged with a quite strict application condition, and the cultural exceptions are based on the measures provided by the cultural-diversified treaty which have some conflicts with the liabilities which the members undertook under WTO system.As for the audiovisual products distribution under ICT of China, the problems could be regarded as the copyright-related issue and the distribution-related issue. The former are about the infringement across the internet and the alleged issues from the Special301; the latter are about the issues raised from the China-US audiovisual service case, which is about the trade rights and treaty interpretation. Under the background of China’s endeavor to develop the cultural industry, the solutions in legal means may include to enhance the enforcement of the penalties on internet piracy, research on cultural exception under WTO system; the solutions in policy may include the optimization of copyright trade platforms, develop the internet copyright distribution, enhance the power to made rules in the international community and enhance the financing of copyright trade, etc.