Abstract: In recent years, as the sports industry is developing, cases of infringement related to sports programs, especially "pirate cases" of sports programs are increasing. The primary reason for such cases is the absence of legislation about sports events in China's Copyright Law. According to Locke's property of labor, utilitarian theories and Rousseau's society theory, and based on analysis of the object properties of originality and replicability which are protected by Copyright Law, sports programs should be protected by Copyright Law. As a result,during the third modification of the Copyright Law,the legislator should make clear regulations on the copyright of sports program which should be protected, and categorize sports programs as "audiovisual works" like cinematographic works and works created by virtue of the analogous method of film production. In this way, piracy of sports program can be stopped from the source.

Key words: sports games, sports program, sports programs rebroadcast, copyright of sports programs, audiovisual works