In 1990 (the 1990 Law), retrospective rules concerning the 1985 Law were added (Article 50-1, Section 1: “For a work enrolled before July/10/1985 and is still valid for copyright protection on the same date, its copyright term abides by the 1985 Law.” And the former part of Section 2: “For a work completed before July/10/1985 and was not enrolled for copyright protection, if it was published less than 20 years, it applies the 1985 Law after July/10/1985 ” ).

On June/10/1992, the Law was amended again, and the copyright term for movies become “50 years after the public release of the work”, which is still the same today. A retrospective rule was also enacted (Article 106: “except as otherwise provided for in the Law, for works matches the requirements of Article50-1 of the 1990 Law, if its copyright is still valid on June/10/1992 according to the 1990 Law, it applies the 1992 Law after June/10/1992”).

Therefore, for movies prior to July/10/1985, if it matches the requirements of Article 50-1 of the 1990 Law and is still valid for copyright protection on June/10/1992, its copyright term would be“50 years after the public release of the work”. If it matches the requirements of the 1990 Law but its copyright has expired before June/10/1992, the term would be “30 years upon completion of the work”. And the rest would be “10 years from its first publication”.