Ensuring the Advancement of Chinese Information Technology - Copyright Restrictions Anchored Purely to Utilitarian Justification

Information technology and its usage on the internet have revolutionized the way in which various copyrighted works are captured, stored, copied and distributed. By expanding the breadth, diversity and sheer number of copyrighted works in existence, the internet has fundamentally changed the nature of copyright markets.;This thesis attempts to argue that the laws in Mainland China should reserve enough space for information technologies to develop, without unreasonably prejudicing the interests of copyright holders.;This thesis contends that the utilitarian justification for copyright plays an underlying role in both Chinese copyright legislation and judicial application. Under the utilitarian model in China, fostering a maximization of culture development is the aim of the copyright law. As such, in the era of information overload, the Chinese government should aim to develop the Digital Economy. In order to achieve this aim, it needs to start by ensuring that its copyright law appropriately enables Internet Intermediaries to operate and to invest in creating Chinese Digital Economy. Copyright law in China needs to create room to move.;This thesis examines Sony defense, notice-and-take-down safe harbors, inducement liability and fair use, for the purpose of seeking enough space for information technology development. The existing rules in China, e.g. inducement liability, should be interpreted as avoiding placing unreasonable burden on internet intermediaries. As to the defenses against copyright infringement, Sony defense in the US should be introduced as a factor in assessing copyright infringement in China. And the scope of safe harbor protection should be extended to include all internet intermediaries, for the purpose of providing breathing room for unanticipated technology developments. Moreover, at the very least, certain fair dealing exceptions for certain transformative use in good faith should be adopted in China to foster the existing operations of information technology. And it is more desirable to introduce a non-exhaustive fair dealing exception to cover activities necessary to run all socially useful internet intermediary services, in the way of ensuring information technology development.;A well-designed legal system should have positive impacts on the human progress; or otherwise, it would have deterrence effects on the social development. A legal system which promotes both copyright and communication technologies creations is what we need in the future. This kind of system requires a fertile land for technologies innovation without destroying the developments of the entertainment industries.