Laws of the People's Republic of China

Supreme People's Court, Supreme People's Procuratorate

Announcement of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate

Interpretation No.12 [2005] of the Supreme People's Court

This announcement, which was adopted at the 1365th meeting of the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People's Court on September 26, 2005, and the 39th meeting of the Tenth Procuratorial Committee of the Supreme People's Procuratorate on September 30, 2005, is hereby promulgated, and shall come into force on October 18, 2005.

Supreme People's Court

Supreme People's Procuratorate

October 13, 2005

Reply of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate about Relevant Issues of Handling Criminal Cases of Infringing upon Copyright concerning Audio-visual Fixation

The higher people's courts and the people's procuratorates of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, military courts and the military procuratorates of the PLA, the Production and Construction Corps branch of the Higher People's Court of Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region and the people's procuratorate of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps:

After the issuance of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate about Relevant Issues of Handling Criminal Cases of Infringing upon Copyright concerning Audiovisual Works, some higher people's courts and the people's procuratorates at provincial level have requested instructions about some relevant issues of handling criminal cases of infringing upon copyright concerning audio-visual fixation. Upon deliberation, you are hereby given a reply as follows:

Aiming at making profits, the act of duplicating and distributing audiovisual works without the permission of the producers, quantity standard is applicable to the item 2 paragraph 1 and the item 2 paragraph 2 of Article 5 respectively of Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate concerning Some Issues on the Specific Application of Law for Handling Criminal Cases of Infringement upon Intellectual Property Rights.

The act of disseminating the audiovisual works to the public without the permission of their producers through information network shall be deemed as a "reproduction and distribution" as prescribed in the Item 3 of Article 217 of the Criminal Law.

Hereby replied.