Research on the Establishment and Application of Punitive Damages in China's Copyright Infringement: in the Background of the Third Amendment of Copyright Law of China

Punitive damages derived from common law liability. Punitive damages regime in the modern sense born in England, was soon widely accepted by common law countries. In the field of copyright infringement, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada have developed a unique system of punitive damages. Civil law system which has been to the principle of full compensation, adheres to compensatory damages with the goal of filling the loss of infringee, and regards the punitive damages as foreigners. But some civil law countries or regions, such as France, Germany and Taiwan, have made a breakthrough in legislative practice or theoretical discussion in recent years. However, the criticism of traditional theory about thefunctional division of public and private law, about the functional positioning of tort law are unavoidable problems when we explore the way to introduce the punitive damages into the field of copyright infringement. If we examine these problems above from four perspectives: the functional division of public and private law, the preventive function of tort law, and the rational apathy accompanied with criminal responsibility and compensatory damages, we will find that there is no obstacle to introduce punitive damages into copyright law. Focused on the situation of protection of right in copyright field, some problems existed in reality make the punitive damages meaningful, such as the flooding of copyright infringement, the insignificance of criminal protection, and the universal compensatory damages on the low side. In the background of the third time modification of copyright law, it is a priority to make clear three subjects: the purpose of the punitive damages, the relationship among the punitive damages, compensatory damagesand the statutory damages, and the condition of the appliance of punitive damages.