Copyright and the public interest in China

Abstract

This thesis will consider how the multidimensional public interest concept at once informs development of Chinese copyright law and also limits it. Since 1990 China has awarded copyright - individual rights - but also provides for public, non-criminal enforcement. Bowing to pressures of development, globalisation and participation in a world economy, the public interest is leaving copyright. But at the same time, as a socialist country, placing the common ahead of the individual interest, the public interest also constitutes a phenomenological tool with which to limit copyright. The tensions are further exacerbated by the rise of the Internet, which has had major social and economic impact on China, and also raise problems for Chinese copyright law, of which selected aspects will be discussed in comparison with those in the United Kingdom and the United States. The thesis consists of an introduction and a conclusion, together with six chapters: a historical background of legal culture and the rise of the Internet in China; an examination on copyright law and the different aspects of the public interest; discussions on the Chinese system of copyright protection with a focus on the administrative copyright enforcement, and topical copyright issues arising within education, library and archives sectors on the ground of the multidimensional public interest.