Introduction To The Legal Protection Of Folk Literature And Art

The folklore is an important part for conserving the diversity of culturalexpressions，especially for developing countries with long history, such as China. As animportant part of the cultural industry, the folklore is of inestimable economic value. Atpresent, national and international legal protection for folklore is still not perfect. Manyfolklore can not be retained and carried forward due to lack of timely and effectiveprotection. Therefore, to provide proper legal protection for folklore become a hot topicwith widespread concern in the world.Focus on the above-mentioned issue, the article gives a systematic andcomprehensive elaboration on the legal protection of folklore. The text consists of fourparts, respectively, and examines and analyzes the legal protection of folklore from thetheoretical and practical perspectives. On this basis, it gives some proposals for thesystem and the mode of legal protection of folklore in our country.The first section introduces the basic issues about folklore. First and formost, itsummarizes the definition of folklore from the current international specification file,distinguishs the concept between folklore and traditional knowledge, intangible culturalheritage, folklore works and folklore interpretation works. The concept of folklore isfurther clarified. Secondly, based on the understanding of the concept of folklore, itproposes the expression forms and features of folklore.The second part analyses the legal protection of folklore. From a practical point ofview, it elaborates the cultural and economic value of folklore and explains the necessityto provide legal protection. And then, starts from the legal theory, it discusses the legalrelationship of folklore under the protection by law, including subject, object andcontent of rights.The third part summarizes the status of domestic and international legal protectionof folklore through studying of laws, treaties and other normative documents, It alsoreveals the problems, difficulties and controversies in the process of legal protection offolklore, mainly including the definition of protection scope, the nature of legal belongsas well as the selection of protection mode. The fourth part, through theoretical research on legal protection and analysis of thestatus on folklore protection, the author gives some suggestions and comments on thelegal protection of folklore which is believed to be applicable and effective in China,specifically including the selection of protection mode, the determination of legalrelationship and how to exercise the right.In this article, based on the analysis of the concept and the status as well asraising relevant problems, the author gives humble advice to the legal protection offolklore, with the hope to make reference for our law reform.