Infringements occur from time to time, and it is difficult to defend rights——
Online education needs to make up the "copyright lesson" (Online China)
A student takes online lessons at home.
Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Lei
As a new education method that breaks the limitations of time and space, online education has been booming in recent years.
Affected by the epidemic this year, user demand has ushered in a spurt of growth. According to Tianyan Check data, as of October, there were 82,000 new online education companies this year.
According to the "Statistical Report on the Development of the Internet in China", as of March, the number of online education users in China has reached 423 million, an increase of 82% from June 2019.
In the face of development opportunities, infringements in the online education industry have also followed.
How to ensure that the online education copyright is not infringed?
This topic is thought-provoking.
"The hardest hit area" where piracy is rampant
For foreign language courses worth 3,000 yuan on the official website, some online stores only sell "9 RMB 9", which can be saved through the online disk; text materials from different institutions are integrated into the "learning package" and can be downloaded by clicking on the link... Now, These phenomena are becoming more and more common and have become a means for some businesses or individuals to increase traffic and attract consumers.
Many people raised doubts: In offline life, copying the content of books privately and selling them to the outside world is an infringement; then, is the online dissemination of courses and materials without permission infringement?
"Videos, courseware, text content, etc. in online education courses generally belong to the "works" or "audio and video products" described in the "Copyright Law" and are protected by the "Copyright Law"." Zhao Gang, a partner of Zhong Lun Law Firm In an interview with our reporter, the above behavior constituted infringement.
Zhao Gang pointed out that in addition, there are more forms of infringement in the online education industry: plagiarizing question banks compiled by other institutions or analyzing real questions to form teaching supplementary materials for the institution's online teaching; interspersing copyrighted film and music works in teaching videos ; The presenter uses the video recorded by the original unit to teach...The communicator uses the original work of others for personal gain, infringes the original author's right of reproduction, information network dissemination, and projection rights, and damages the legitimate rights and interests of the original content author.
Industry insiders believe that piracy has always been a chronic disease of the society, and online education is the "hardest hit area" where piracy is rampant. If this happens, it will hinder the healthy development of the industry and is not conducive to creating an atmosphere of respect for copyright in the whole society.
Cracking software makes people hard to guard against
The Beijing Internet Court recently held a "Online Education Intellectual Property Related Issues Seminar". Wei Jia, the general counsel of the Future Education Group, introduced that the group complained on an e-commerce platform to delete about 15,000 links that infringed the copyright of Xueersi Online Course. 274 stores were closed and 102 stores were emptied of all products.
Coincidentally, Baiwen Technology Co., Ltd., which specializes in software operation teaching, said that since it began to provide paid video tutorials in 2011, the company has been facing the challenge of piracy.
This phenomenon is even more rampant on second-hand trading platforms, seriously affecting the company's rights and interests.
According to relevant analysis, although major institutions and platforms use content encryption, anti-theft plug-ins and other technical means to protect copyright, there are many pirates who are driven by profits to develop corresponding cracking software. Human defense is hard to defend.
Qi Lei, a judge of the Beijing Higher People’s Court, said that with the increasingly open network environment, the activities of infringers have expanded from e-commerce platforms and second-hand trading websites to WeChat Moments and QQ groups. There have also been many resales. After detecting infringements , The right holder cannot directly request the other party’s real-name information from the platform, and cannot clarify the defendant.
Moreover, it is extremely convenient for the infringer to delete and modify the network content, which causes difficulties for the right holder to obtain evidence.
All of these make it difficult to proceed with litigation and encourage infringement.
Experts said that online education is a new type of education that uses modern information technologies such as the Internet and artificial intelligence to interact with teaching and learning. It should be rationally realized that technical means and network environments have promoted online education to enter the fast lane and have also become a breeding ground for infringement. Hotbed.
Heli says "no" to pirated content
Although the fertile ground for the birth and growth of online education itself has bred infringement, the industry can still make a difference.
Zhao Gang said that companies registering their works in the Copyright Bureau, improving technical means, and avoiding technical cracking by criminals are only part of strengthening the awareness of copyright protection.
Considering that online education companies have greater personnel mobility and different levels of understanding of copyright protection, it is necessary to strengthen personnel management, popularize relevant education, and clarify copyright ownership with teachers who record courses, and implement copyright protection in detail.
In 2019, 11 departments including the Ministry of Education issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Healthy Development of Online Education", which requires strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights and severely cracking down on violations of intellectual property rights in accordance with the law.
This year, various localities actively responded to the National Copyright Administration, the Office of the Internet Information Office, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and other departments to carry out the "Jianwang 2020" special action to rectify the chaos of infringement and piracy in online education and training, and cut off the gray industry chain of pirated online courses , Achieved good results.
The Beijing Municipal Cultural Market Administrative Law Enforcement Corps imposed administrative penalties on the two companies who disseminated teaching materials published by People's Education Publishing House through for-profit online education platforms without permission.
Yangzhou City Cultural Market Comprehensive Law Enforcement Detachment has 6 clues of online infringement, and all of them are filed.
Local courts and procuratorates have also actively promoted the trial and prosecution of online education infringement cases, cracked down on intellectual property crimes, penalized infringements, and played a powerful deterrent effect.
Experts believe that in the past copyright protection battles, there was another important force that was easily overlooked.
There is a market only when there is demand. Some consumers use pirated resources because the price is cheap, and objectively condone the "wild growth" of infringement.
Therefore, consumers must increase their awareness of copyright protection, purchase online educational products through formal channels, and say "no" to pirated content.
With the concerted efforts of all parties to firmly grasp the banner of rights protection, online education infringement chaos is expected to be greatly improved, and the online education market will be clear.
Wang Jingyue