Image copyright & infringement
Selected provisions of mainland Chinese laws and regulations relating to the use of images on websites. Each heading identifies the excerpt’s scope. The linked official publications contain the full provisions.
Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China
Amended on 11 November 2020; effective from 1 June 2021.
Article 3 — opening provision and item (5), excerpt
Article 3 For purposes of this Law, the term "works" means intellectual achievements in the fields of literature, art and science, which are original and can be expressed in a certain form, including:
(5) photographic works;
Article 10, paragraph 1 — opening provision and items (2), (5) and (12), excerpt
Article 10 Copyright includes the following personal rights and property rights:
(2) the right of authorship, that is, the right to claim authorship, and to have the author's name mentioned in connection with the work;
(5) the right of reproduction, that is, the right to produce one or more copies of a work by printing, photocopying, rubbing, sound recording, video recording, ripping, duplicating a photographic work, digitizing, or by other means;
(12) the right of communication through information network, that is, the right to make a work available to the public by wire or by wireless means, so that the public may have access to the work at time and place chosen by them;
Article 26, paragraph 1
Article 26 Anyone who uses a work of another shall conclude a licensing contract with the copyright owner, except where no license is required as provided in this Law.
Article 51
Article 51 The following acts shall not be carried out without permission of the right owner:
(1) intentionally deleting or altering the rights management information on works, format designs, performances, sound or video recordings, or radio or television programs, except for those which cannot be avoided due to technical reasons; and
(2) making available to the public works, format designs, performances, sound or video recordings, or radio or television programs when the provider knows or should know that the rights management information attached thereto has been deleted or altered without permission.
Article 52 — opening provision and item (1), excerpt
Article 52 Anyone who commits any of the following infringing acts shall, depending on the circumstances, bear civil liability such as ceasing the infringement, eliminating the effects of the act, making an apology or paying compensation for loss:
(1) publishing a work without permission of the copyright owner;
Article 53 — opening provision and item (1), excerpt
Article 53 Anyone who commits any of the following infringing acts shall, depending on the circumstances, bear civil liability prescribed in Article 52 of this Law; where public rights and interests are concurrently impaired by the infringement, the competent department of copyright shall order the infringer to stop infringement, give him a warning, confiscate his unlawful gains, and confiscate and harmlessly destroy the infringing copies and the materials, tools and instruments mainly used to produce the infringing copies, and may, where the illegal turnover exceeds 50,000 yuan, concurrently impose a fine of not less than one time but not more than five times the illegal turnover; where there is no illegal turnover or the illegal turnover is difficult to calculate or is less than 50,000 yuan, a fine of not more than 250,000 yuan may be imposed concurrently; where a crime is constituted, criminal liability shall be investigated in accordance with the law:
(1) without permission of the copyright owner, reproducing, distributing, performing, projecting, broadcasting, compiling a work or disseminating a work to the public through information network, unless otherwise provided in this Law;
Official Chinese text · Quanzhou Municipal Bureau of Justice
Regulations on the Protection of the Right of Communication through Information Networks
Amended on 30 January 2013. The English excerpt below is a reference translation; the official Chinese text is linked below.
Article 2
Article 2 The right of communication through information networks enjoyed by right holders is protected by the Copyright Law and these Regulations. Unless otherwise provided by laws or administrative regulations, any organization or individual that makes another person’s works, performances, sound recordings or video recordings available to the public through information networks shall obtain permission from the right holder and pay remuneration.
Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China
Adopted on 28 May 2020; effective from 1 January 2021.
Article 1018
Article 1018 A natural person enjoys the right to likeness, and is entitled to make, use, publicize, or authorize others to use his image in accordance with law.
The likeness is an external image of a specific natural person reflected in video recordings, sculptures, drawings, or on other media by which the person can be identified.
Article 1019
Article 1019 No organization or individual may infringe upon other’s rights to likeness by vilifying or defacing the image thereof, or through other ways such as falsifying other’s image by utilizing information technology. Unless otherwise provided by law, no one may make, use, or publicize the image of the right holder without the latter’s consent.
Without the consent of the person holding the right to likeness, a person holding a right in the works of the image of the former person shall not use or publicize the said image by ways such as publishing, duplicating, distributing, leasing, or exhibiting thereof.