当前国际社会关于民间文学艺术的研究方兴未艾。民间文学艺术是指在一定的自然和社会条件下由特定的社会群体（国家、民族或特定地域内作为一个集体的全体居民）集体创作，或群体中具有传统技艺、反映该群体传统特征的个人创作并被群体认可，由该群体通过口授身传的方式世代相传并不断发展的体现该群体生活历史、风俗习惯、环境地貌、心理特征的文学和艺术表达。民间文学艺术表现形式多样，内容复杂，可分为四类，即言语表达，音乐表达，行为表达和物质表达。但不同的民间文学艺术具有一些共同的特征：创作的群体性，主体的不确定性，时间上的延续性。民间文学艺术，从本质上讲是一种智力成果，是知识产权的新客体。因此，运用知识产权制度保护民间文学艺术是合理的。广大发展中国家尤其是我国，拥有丰富的民间文学艺术。随着全球化的发展，民间文学艺术面临如下严峻挑战：民间文学艺术后继乏人，面临灭失的危险；在使用民间文学艺术的过程中存在不规范的行为；大量的民间文学艺术流失海外；利益分配中的不合理等。民间文学艺术是一种既珍贵又脆弱的智力成果，要使民间文学艺术保持长久的生命力，维护民间文学艺术来源群体的利益，就需要运用法律保护这种手段，规范人们的行为。国际公约和各国国内立法逐渐关注民间文学艺术的保护问题。我国对民间文学艺术的保护主要是采取著作权法。1990制定的《著作权法》第六条规定民间文学艺术作品的著作权保护办法由国务院另行规定。2001年新修改的《著作权法》仍保留了这一条。由于各种因素的影响，我国的《民间文学艺术作品保护条例》至今没有出台，造成民间文学艺术的保护一直无法可依。在司法实践领域出现的《乌苏里船歌》著作权纠纷案，主要是以《著作权法》作为判案依据，但人们至今对这一案例仍争论不休。可见，现有的《著作权法》保护民间文学艺术是有局限性的。民间文学艺术本身的复杂性和多样性，要求我们寻求多种途径对其进行保护。在我国，民间文学艺术的保护问题是一个复杂而紧迫的课题，解决它需要综合利用法律、政策等手段。以法律、法规为主体，中央统一保护与地方个别保护相结合，政府保护和民间保护相结合，建立一套以《民间文学艺术保护法》为核心的民间文学艺术综合保护体系，是我国保护民间文学艺术的必然选择。

Currently, the research about folklore and the protection about it in the international society is ascendant. The so-called folklore is created under the certain nature and the social condition by the specific social group (in country, nationality and specific region took a collective all inhabitant) ,the collective creation or someone in the community has the traditional technique, reflected this community tradition characteristic, the individual initiative and is approved by the community, through the way by this community which the people pass on to from generation to generation and unceasingly to develop ,which manifests this community life history, the manners and customs, the environment landform, the psychological characteristic literature and the artistic expression. The expression of folklore is diverse, the content is complex, may divide into four kinds, namely spoken language expression, music expression, behavior expression and material expression. But different folklore has some common characteristics: collective creation, main person not determined, time continuous。The folklore is the fruit of intellectual creation in essence. So it must be protected by intellectual property. In addition, modern creations based on tradition folklore are protected by the system of intellectual property, and so the folklore should also be protected by the system of intellectual property.Many developing country especially in our country, have colorful folklore. With the developing of globalization, the subsisting and developing of folklore are facing many challenges. The folklore is precious and crisp, so we should use law system to protect it. And protect the owners’ interest. Some international laws and many external laws refer this question. In our country, we mainly use the law of copyright to protect it. But protecting folklore by the law of copyright has some limitations. We should seek many ways to protect it efficacious and thoroughly. The protection of folklore is a important and urgent subject in china. We should establish comprehensive protecting system, including laws, policies and so on to protect folklore.