The Regulations on the Protection of Computer Software were promulgated in 2001 and amended in 2011 and 2013 respectively. The latest revision entered into force on 1 Mar. 2013. There are 33 articles in total, which aim to clarify how to protect the rights and interests of copyright owners of computer software under the Copyright Law, coordinate the interests of various parties in the development, dissemination and use of computer software, so as to encourage the development and application of computer software. The key points are as follows: 1. The term “computer software” refers to computer programs and files related thereto. 2. Chinese citizens, legal persons or other organizations shall be entitled to copyright protection pursuant to the Regulations in respect of software developed by them, whether published or not. 3. Foreigners and stateless persons who have their software first distributed in China shall be entitled to copyright protection. 4. The protection of software copyright under the Regulations shall not extend to ideas, processing procedures, operation methods or mathematical concepts used in the software development. 5. The software copyright shall be owned by the software developer, unless otherwise stipulated by the Regulations. Unless there is evidence to the contrary, the natural person, the legal person or the organization that signs on the software shall be the developer. 6. The copyright ownership of the software developed under entrustment shall be agreed upon in a written contract signed by the principal and the agent; in case of no written contract or ambiguous agreement, the copyright shall be enjoyed by the agent. 7. He who infringes on the copyright of a software copyright owner shall bear the civil liabilities such as stopping the infringement, eliminating the influence, making an apology, and/or compensating for the losses; if the infringement damages the public interest at the same time, the copyright administrative department shall order the infringer to stop the infringement, confiscate and destroy the infringing copies, and may also impose a fine; if the circumstances are serious, the copyright administrative department may also confiscate the materials, tools and equipment mainly used for making infringing copies; if the infringer violates the criminal law, he shall be investigated for criminal responsibility in accordance with the provisions of the P.R.C. Criminal Law on the crime of infringing copyright and the crime of selling infringing copies. 8. If the software copyright owner has evidence to prove that another person is committing or is about to commit the infringement, and if it is not stopped in time, it will cause irreparable damage to his/her legitimate rights and interests, he/she may apply to the court for measures such as the conduct suspension and the property preservation before filing a lawsuit.