Private Copy And Its Legal Regulation

Nowadays, the following behaviors are commonly seen in our daily life:Copying parts of the book one borrows for the purpose of research or appreciation. Downloading movies or music albums with P2P softwares as PPLIVE,QVOD, etc. Imprinting the downloaded music on CD for repeated appreciation. These behaviors have been regarded common and trivial, but from the perspective of Copyright, these simple behaviors are accompanied with a hidden and complicated issue in the Theory of Copyright, that is, the Private Copying.The behaviour of Private Copying has been conducted since ancient times, but there has been no consistent definition to it. Then, how to define Private Copying? In different historical periods, what were the Copyright Law’ attitudes towards the Private Copying? What kinds of methods were used to curb private copying? What regulations are there in the Copyright Law for private copying, and what are the deficiencies of them comparing with those in foreign countries? What improvements should be made based on these deficiencies? The questions above constitute the focus of this research.A clear understanding of the concept is the precondition for carrying out legal studies and solving legal problems. Therefore, based on the current concepts and combining with the fixed characteristics of the private copying behaviors, this text improves the definition of Private Copying and "Correct Name" for the Private Copying. Meanwhile, under the digital network environment, the author attempts to give a fresh definition for "Private" and "Copy" so as to get an answer more characterized by the trend and features of the times.Private Copying isn’t born with "original sin". The influences posed by private copying vary in different development periods. Therefore, in this text, based on the development of the copying technology, the author carries out inspections on the historical and current situations of the private copying, summarizes the different attitudes of laws towards private copying, as well as the diversified regulation methods. In this text, the emphasis is laid on the direct restraining methods of the current Copyright Law on private copying. Meanwhile, it carries out researches, summary for Copyright Compensation System and its significant elements, as well as demonstrating the values for it to maintain the existence in the digital network age. In the end of the text, the emphasis is laid on the inspections on the legal regulations for the Copyright Law of our country on private copying. Starting from the current legal regulations and compared with the legislation abroad, it gives a general introduction of the legislation status related to private copying in the Copyright Law of our country, points out the deficiencies in the legislation, hence proposing the corresponding solutions for improvement, that is, to introduce the national conditions-suitable Copyright Compensation System while posing direct restrictions to private copying.