Broken copyright in the pandemic crisis – rethinking public interest in China
Luo Li · 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerates the digitalisation transformation in the creative industry, and now creativity heavily relies on the digital platform to transmit and distribute information. Because of a copyright rule of “permission first and use later”, massive copyright permission requests delay and even frustrate the use and transmission process during the pandemic, even where a strong justification seems to be established. Although the copyright law structures a permission-based culture for the purpose of stimulation of creation and innovation, its design also gives the chance (such as exceptions, fair use and compulsory license) to balance the public interest from those of authors. Nevertheless, it appears that such design is not expected to respond to a global crisis such as COVID-19. This chapter traces the fundamentals of the copyright system and the relation between the public interest and exclusive rights. After reviewing the rationale of the exceptions doctrine in the copyright system, and analysing the issues of the use of copyrightable works during the pandemic, the author calls for a rebuilding of the current exception framework and a copyright compulsory licensing system based on public interest in responding to future national and international public crisis.