| Article5of Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China states that this lawshall not be applicable to news on current affairs. Since there are several literalmeanings of the word “News on Current Affairs” in Chinese, different people hasdifferent opinion of it. As a result, many infringement cases on news reports havebeen raised, but the courts have not formed consistent standards for judgment so far.The part “Introduction” explains the reasons and purposes of research firstly.And then, by the critical analysis of the literature review, it could be summed up thatNews on Current Affairs is always considered as a kind of expression in MainlandChina, while other countries and regions distinguish between news and their reportsstrictly. Research methodology is presented in the following section, which includethe methods of legal analysis, cases studies, comparative law analysis as well asinterdisciplinary research.Chapter1focuses on the status quo of legal practice in related areas in MainlandChina. On analysis of related laws and regulations, the conclusion could be drawn thatthe nature of News on Current Affairs is fact, not expression. Due to themisunderstanding of its nature, there are no consistent standards for judgment, and thelogic for judgment itself does not go smoothly. So it is necessary to reinterpret therelated laws and regulations. The first step of reinterpretation is to make the essential property of News onCurrent Affairs clear. By comparative law methodology, rules of foreign and domesticlegal systems are compared, which shows that facts and expression are distinguishedstrictly. Generally speaking, there are no similar rules in common law system, whilethere are two legislative modes in this area in civil law system. On the basis of aboveanalysis, News on Current Affairs in China should be considered as facts conveyed byreports. And two main reasons for such rules are illustrated.The second step of reinterpretation focuses on News Reports. In order to becopyrightable, news reports should meet the demand of originality in Copyright Law.According to the characteristics of news reports, authenticity and the originality arediscussed in this chapter, and conclusions are drawn.Based on the above analysis, three pieces of advice are raised in Chapter4. Thefirst one is to understand the legal principles of the relevant provisions. The secondone is to modify laws and regulations. The third one is to establish the judgmentelements for the originality of news reports, and to unify the standard of judicialdecisions. |
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