Re: Re: Hillary Clinton in China

In-Reply-To: <list-1483599[_at_]cni.org>
Terry Carroll wrote:
> On Mon, 29 Sep 2003, Michael Carroll wrote:
>
> > Much ado has been made in our press about censorship of Sen.
> > Clinton's book in China -- now a bestseller. Assuming she signed a
> > standard publishing contract, does she or her publisher have a valid
> > copyright or trademark claim against those who are producing and
> > distributing this derivative work? I
>
> Probably. Any such cause of action would arise under Chinese law, so
> it would depend on that law.

Chinese law has moral rights.

I know this only from:

  http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-07/15/content_245381.htm   

in which calligrapher Guan Dongsheng sued for breach of economic and moral rights too - or "spiritual losses" as their translator has it. He won GBP 29,000 from Dow-Jones for their unlicensed use of one character.   

I would assume that these include the moral right of integrity. I also wouldn't be at all surprised if there was a "public morals" letout, this being Chinese law. I'd *love* to see a translation of the statute...

> > As for the American publisher, I can imagine that when signing a
> > deal with the Chinese printer/distributor, the American publisher
> > acknowledges that government censors may demand changes to the text...

I can imagine that too. Gosh, aren't we all precise today :-)  

Mike Received on Wed Oct 01 2003 - 20:15:10 GMT