The Highest People's Court of Beijing has recently brought out the "Views for guidance on determining copyright violation damage and liability of compensation", thereby making a special clear-cut regulation on a series of questions in regard of the copyright violation compensation. This is the first special regulation China has worked out on the problem of compensation for copyright violation.

As introduced, in the lawsuits concerning the copyright violation compensation the problem has remained a thorny one for many years. The Highest People's Court of Beijing discovered from its investigation that in the cases of copyright violation ruled by municipal court there exists a very big difference in the amount that the accuser demanded for and the amount finally ruled by the court.

The reason behind is mainly due to that the copyright holders are lack of knowledge about the damage incurred and the compensation for copyright violation. The copyright holder always feels that the compensation as ruled by the court is too far less which is not enough for paying off the lawsuit charges and the final result is to have won the lawsuit but lost the money. However, the violator lost in the lawsuit makes a lot of complaints by saying that not much benefit has been gained from it and the compensation is too high while most of the people do not have a clear understanding about the ruling by the court.

In the regulation for the compensation for copyright violation brought out recently there are 35 rules with the contents to have dealt with verification for damage incurred and the liability for compensation, principle and method for the compensation, compensation for spiritual damage and the determination of how much to be compensated for the violation of the copyright as often seen in daily life. It is stipulated that the amount of compensation for copyright violation as determined by the people's court should be able to cover wholly and make up fully the loss of the accuser due to the copyright being violated, namely to embody the "principle for a full compensation". This is the cardinal principle for compensation in the civil law of modern times and also the principle for compensation as stipulated in the Chinese Civil Law and the Law of Intellectual Property Rights and this is in line with the related requirements of the TRRIPS protocol of the World Trade Organization.

What deserves the attention is, the guiding views have for the first time included in it the compensation for spiritual damage in regard of the copyright violation. In the meanwhile the compensation amount for spiritual damage should be determined comprehensively according to the seriousness of mistakes, way of violation, plots in the violation and areas of influence as well as the benefits obtained by the accused from the violation of the copyright and the ability in taking up the liability for compensation. The particular amount is no less than RMB 2000 yuan in general nor will it be higher than RMB 50,000 yuan.

By People's Daily Online