Toward a more balanced safe harbour protection system for internet service providers in China

• Main Author: WANG, Jia
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2015
• Subjects: Asian Studies
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/1775
• Institution: Singapore Management University

In China, the Copyright Law provides limited guidance on how to deal with the indirect liability of Internet Service Providers (ISPs). In the absence of clear legislation, Chinese courts have rendered conflicting interpretations of the knowledge requirement for imposing indirect liability under the Copyright Law. This article argues that the Copyright Law needs to be reformed to create a more balanced liability regime for copyright owners, ISPs and end users. Under this liability regime, an ISP would be held jointly liable when it has clear and sufficient knowledge about the occurrence of a specific copyright infringement, and has the ability to influence or control its users' acts. Different from existing research on ISPs' liability, this article is more attentive to court decisions. This article not only provides a detailed analysis of important cases dealing with ISPs' liability, but also makes necessary references to other pertinent Chinese copyright cases heard by courts in the past decade.