Auction renowned writer’s missives violates China’s copyright

China’s copyright authorities have backed Yang Jiang’s petition for halting an auction involving private letters of her and her late husband Qian Zhongshu Wednesday. It generates public discussions about China’s copyright law.

Law experts from Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China and Peking University have ever held a seminar on the legal issue of private missives auction. Auction people’s private letters without their permissions violates writers’ and others’ privacy and copyrights, according to the law experts. But some specialists from law community hold the view that this behavior would not violate copyright, because auction is just related to the transfer of property not the copyright.

China’s auction law shows that the auctioneer should present auction targets in advance and provide their qualifications, as well as other relevant materials. The duration of auction targets’ presentation should not be less than two days. Besides, printed catalogues and photo albums of auction targets is also the way of public presentation. After Qian passed away, the copyright of his missives have been transferred to his wife. Yang have not allowed these missives public, it is illegal to auction.