With the coming out of the decision from theCPC Central Committee on "major issues concerningcomprehensively advancing rule of law", Chinese legal construction hasentered a new era and culture legislation isalso in overall planning and improving. Legalization and standardization havebecome two important parts in deepening the reform of cultural system and promoting the prosperity of culturalundertakings.

Under such ageneral background and great opportunity, the first forum for development andpractice of rule of law in culture, which was sponsored by Communication University ofChina and hosted by public culture research base of Ministry of Culture, communication university of China economicsand management cultural development institute, Tahota lawyer school and Tahotalaw firm.

This forum chose “Development and Practice of Rule of Law inCulture”as the theme. The mostfamous scholars in the field of culture industry and law and industry eliteswere invited to the forum, including Zhu Bing,director of the Education,Science, Culture and Health Committee of the National People's Congress cultureoffice, Duan Yuping, deputy director of the managementdivision of National Copyright Administration of the P.R.C., leaders from the BeijingIP court like president Su Chi, and Jiang Ping, the former headmaster as wellas lifetime professor of China University of Political Science and Law. Theydiscussed together about such cutting-edge topics as how to speed up thecultural legislation, how to build a complete legal system, and how to improve legalconstruction of culture so as to promote and ensure the development of culturalundertakings and cultural industries.

   The forum started at 9 am. on October 29.In the beginning, Liao Xiangzhong, the deputy headmaster of CommunicationUniversity of China, Zhu Bin, the director of the Education, Science, Cultureand Health Committee of the National People's Congress culture office, and DuanYuping, deputy director of the management division of National CopyrightAdministration of the P.R.C. showed their confidence in the development of ruleof law in culture. Then, with minister Fan Zhou and director Cheng Shoutai astwo witnesses, the signing ceremony of strategic cooperation between CommunicationUniversity of China and Tahota Law Firm was held. The two sides will keep aclose connection to contribute to the development of rule of law in culture bycombining practice with academics. At the signing ceremony, professor WeiXiaoyang and lawyer Shen Zhijun, a partner of Tahota from Beijing office, gavea speech respectively and both expressed great expectation for their cooperation.

After the signing ceremony,Duan Yuping, deputy director of the management division of National CopyrightAdministration of the P.R.C., and Su Chi, the president of Beijing IP courtgave a speech respectively from the angle of culture legislation, administrativelaw enforcement and judicial judgment. Duan Yuping had a detailed analysis ofthe current situation of internet copyright legislation and law revise from theangle of copyright legislation and administrative law enforcement under networkenvironment. Based on practical judgment in Beijing IP court, president Su Chianalyzed intellectual property disputes and proposed that courts should providejudicial pricing power for intellectual property. Hissentence “It’s better to make infringers cry than to make obligeescomplain” brought the house down and showed our determination to protectobligees with justice.

After that, professor jiangping, a famous jurist, gave a closing speech. By analyzing cultural market freedom,laws on cultural market order and laws on cultural market revolution, professorJiang offered us an in-depth analysis of the relationship between culturemarket and rules of law. His idea that culture was also a legal phenomenon wasnew and fresh to us and let us witness this master’s wisdom. Just as the host professorJie Wenjin said, if the son is filial, the father will not have to work. We will go onstruggling by following the footprints of our predecessors in the field of law.

At the end of the morningforum, Ms. Gu Wenyang, the legal director of Sogou company and lawyer ChengShoutai, a chief partner of Tahota Law Firm, shared their opinions from theperspective of enterprise requirements and lawyer service practicerespectively. Achievements of culture innovation in recent years were reviewedand they also talked about the great prospects for the development of rule oflaw in culture.

Two sub-forums were heldrespectively on October 29 afternoon. Through face-to-face, academic andpractical communication, experts, scholars and lawyers and corporaterepresentatives had an in-depth communication about practical experience inculture industry legal protection, inspiring new ideas, direction and topicsabout the development of rule of law in culture. Their ideas provide legalthinking in innovation culture industry public culture service management forour government, improve recent research in rule of law in culture, lead thepractice of rule of law in culture and inject more wisdom and enlightenmentinto China’s culture legislation.

All guests said after the forumthat they had benefited much from the forum and that it provided a good theoreticalsupport and thinking path for their work in the future and the development ofculture and rule of law in practice.

If you want to develop culture, you have todevelop rule of law first. Culture and law are penetration into each other inan unprecedented breadth and depth. The two help each other: law protectsculture and culture provides power and driving force of law development. Let’s improvethe cultural market regulations system and safeguard the rule of law process ofpublic cultural services together. Let’s welcome the sustained and healthydevelopment of cultural undertakings and cultural industries in China hand inhand.

Compared with all the guests’wisdom, such a short press release is just only the tip of the iceberg. We willsort out the content of guests’ speeches and create a column on a regular basisabout “ wonderful reviews of forum for the rule of law in culture” later on.  we hope you continue to pay attention.