On January 30, the State Council announced the decision to modify four regulations—Regulations of PRC on Computer Software Protection, Regulations for Implementation of Copyright Law of PRC, Regulations on Information Network Transmission Right Protection and Regulations of PRC on Protection of New Varieties of Plants , which will take effect as of March 1, 2013.

The State Council has decided to modify the Regulations of PRC on Protection of New Varieties of Plants as follows：

1. Clause 3 of Article 39 is amended as: "The agriculture and forestry administrative departments of people's government at or above the provincial level can order an infringer to stop infringement and confiscate the illegal income and propagating material of plant varieties to protect public interests in handling the variety rights infringement cases in line with their authorities; as for the cases for value of more than 50,000, a fine of 1-5 times of the value could be imposed; as for no value or the value of less than 50,000, a fine of less than 250,000 could be imposed based on its seriousness and circumstances. "

2. Article 40 is amended as: "As for the counterfeit varieties, the agriculture and forestry administrative departments of people's government at or above the county level can order to stop the counterfeiting and confiscate the illegal income and propagating material of plant varieties in line with their respective authorities; as for the value of more than 50,000, a fine of 1-5 times of the value could be imposed; as for no value or the value of less than 50,000, a fine of less than 250,000 could be imposed based on its seriousness and circumstances; where the circumstance is serious enough to constitute a crime, the infringer be held criminally liable. "

The State Council has decided to make the following amendments of the "Regulations for Implementation of Copyright Law of PRC":

Article 36 is amended as follows: "As for the infringement specified in Article 48 of the Copyright Law, which harms the public interest and its illegal business turnover is more than 50,000, the copyright administration department can impose a fine of 1-5 times of such illegal turnover; as for no amount of illegal turnover or the illegal turnover is less than 50,000, the copyright administration department can impose a fine of less than 250,000 in accordance with the seriousness of the case."

The State Council has decided to modify the "Regulations on Information Network Transmission Right Protection" as follows:

The " impose of a fine of less than 100,000" in Article 18 and Article 19 is modified as: "As for illegal business turnover of more than 50,000, a fine of 1-5 times of such illegal turnover could be imposed; as for no amount of illegal turnover or the illegal turnover is less than 50,000, a fine of less than 250,000 could be imposed in light of the seriousness and circumstances of the case.

The State Council has decided to modify the "Regulations of PRC on Computer Software Protection" as follows:

Clause 2 of Article 24 is amended as: "The act of the first or second item of the previous clause may be imposed a fine of 100 Yuan each, or 1-5 times of the goods value; the act of the third, fourth or fifth item of the previous clause may be imposed a fine of less than 200,000 Yuan."