China's Copyright Law (2nd Revision) was adopted on February 26,
2010, and went into effect on April 1, 2010. The amendments
contained in the 2nd Revision were adopted primarily in response
to recent findings by a WTO (World Trade Organization) panel
that China's denial of copyright protection of certain censored
works was inconsistent with its TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights) obligations. Copyright protection
is now extended to all "works," without regard to restrictions
on publication and distribution that are imposed by PRC
authorities under other laws and regulations (these restrictions
are unaffected by the amendments). Previously, a work was not
eligible for protection under China's Copyright Law if it was
"prohibited from publication or distribution," which excluded
from copyright protection all works that (i) contained
objectionable content or (ii) had not gone through required
prepublication or pre-distribution censorship review (which also
entails content-based review).