Cosponsored by the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) and the East China University of Political Science and Law (ECUPL), the "Symposium on Legal Protection of Securities Information Rights and Interests" was held on January 22, 2008 to discuss the legal protection of securities information rights and interests under the new development trend of securities market. Attending the meeting were leaders, experts and scholars from 10 units including the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, the National Copyright Administration of the People's Republic of China, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the China Financial Futures Exchange, the Shanghai Futures Exchange, relevant courts in Shanghai, the Shanghai Municipal Informatization Commission, as well as some universities and law firms.
ECUPL Vice President Gu Gongyun pointed out at the meeting that securities information rights and interests protection, different from traditional ownership, is currently a new subject. The experts and scholars from the theoretical and frontline fields, invited by the SSE to the meeting, will contribute to the perfection of the legal protection mechanism of securities information.
However, securities information operation on the emerging Chinese securities market should, according to SSE Vice-President Zhou Qinye, who acknowledged SSE's marked progress in recent years, make its own contribution to the development of the securities market and the SSE. The SSE has invested a lot in software and hardware for securities services. It not only improves the market transparency and keeps the information secret, but also leaves a leeway for industrialization of information services. It is high time that securities information rights called for legislation and judicature guarantees.
The meeting, which kicked off with FTSE Xinhua Index Ltd. (FTSE Xinhua) as a case study, discussed the legal issues concerning the protection of securities information rights and interests in all dimensions. The case is the dispute over the license contract on securities information. FTSE Xinhua lost lawsuits of the first and second instances, thus attracting much attention. Based on their revision and summary, some judges and lawyers analyzed the disputable point, treatment consideration and ruling basis. Referring to the case, scholars at the meeting, from different perspectives of domestic and oversea legislation, judicature, theory and practice, exchanged views on the necessity, flexibility and ways of protection of securities information and also the balance between securities information rights and interests protection and public interests.
Experts agreed that securities information, the intellectual result produced with much capital and innovative effort, should not be treated the same as public or non-commercial information at large. Under the current legal environment, securities market information can be protected in accordance with copyright of compilation. After regulation concerning database protection is formulated, securities market information can be protected as database. Meanwhile, securities information rights in all dimensions should be protected by various means, such as legal, contract and technique methods. Under the fair and paid principle, efforts should be made to achieve balance between exchanges' securities information right protection and public responsibility fulfillment.
Assistant to SSE General Manager Xu Ming summed up in his concluding speech at the meeting that with the fierce competition among exchanges all over the world and the trend of lowering trading costs, securities information has become an important resource of the exchanges. On an emerging and transitional market, it is of great significance to protect securities information rights and interests in China. Authorities, exchanges and market participants have reached agreement on this point. At present, securities information rights and interests protection is still weak, and the relief means is inadequate. Legislative, judicial administrative protection and self-regulation call for reinforcement. Meanwhile, experts proposed their original views, providing important theoretical support for perfection of the protection mechanism of securities information rights and interests.
Finally, in view of urgent need in the current practice, Xu suggests further clarifying Item 113 in the "Securities Law" in the way of judicial interpretation to define the securities information rights on the legal level as the exclusive right. Meanwhile, the SSE will formulate securities information management regulations and define the securities information scope, use, dissemination and supervision. In endowing and guaranteeing rights, the SSE should reasonably set the obligee's obligation to achieve balance between securities information right protection and exchanges' public responsibility fulfillment.
