On the morning of August 11, Xiao Hong, deputy general manager and spokesperson of CNKI, disclosed various information for the first time in an interview.

Xiao Hong responded that CNKI is currently a 100% state-owned holding company, and Tongfang (CNKI) will pay 156 million yuan in copyright fees in 2021.

How to balance "intellectual property protection" and "reasonable use of knowledge" is a key issue related to the development of the academic database industry.

Xiao Hong said that he will consider optimizing the settlement method of author remuneration to increase the income of author remuneration.

Guo Bing, the plaintiff of the "China HowNet Anti-monopoly Case No. 1" and a distinguished associate professor at the School of Law and Politics of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from Beijing Business Daily, "For a document data platform such as HowNet, the copyright issue has always been tricky." .

So, to solve the common problem of unclear remuneration standards in the industry, to balance the protection of intellectual property rights with the rational use of knowledge, and to protect the rights of creators, how far does CNKI have to go?

　　Last year, it paid 156 million yuan in copyright fees

　　In response to the previous netizens' perception of its equity composition, Xiao Hong responded that at present, CNKI is a 100% state-owned holding company, and has "two companies and one agency", namely "China Academic Journals (CD Edition)" Electronic Magazine Co., Ltd. Company, Tongfang Knowledge Network Digital Publishing Technology Co., Ltd., Tongfang Knowledge Network (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd.

　　A reporter from Beijing Business Daily learned that CNKI was questioned by netizens in June as to why Tongfang CNKI (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. is a "limited liability company (solely owned by a foreign legal person)". At that time, CNKI responded that Tongfang shares The holding subsidiary is only registered abroad and has no foreign shareholding.

　　The 2021 financial report shows that Tongfangzhi.com has an annual revenue of 1.289 billion yuan and a gross profit margin of 53.35%.

　　"HowNet's net profit will be 15% in 2021. Tongfang (HowNet) will pay 156 million yuan in copyright fees in 2021, mainly to journals, academic papers, etc." Xiao Hong believes, "The number of journal authors facing HowNet is huge. , involving a total of 42 million people. We have used journals as a hub and have been collectively sublicensed.”

　　Is collective sub-licensing feasible?

　　Under the collective sublicensing model, the interests of some authors may be harmed.

Zhao Dexin, a retired professor at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, sued Zhiwang for this reason. The latter not only included more than 160 of his papers without authorization, but also paid Zhao Dexin to download his own papers.

Zhao Dexin finally won the case and received more than 700,000 yuan in compensation.

　　In 2006, the state promulgated the "Regulations on the Protection of the Right of Information Network Communication", which stipulates that online communication constitutes infringement as long as it has not obtained the permission of the copyright owner.

Many of Zhao Dexin's articles were published before 2006.

Xiao Hong revealed, "For articles before 2006, we are trying to improve the author service platform to solve author authorization, and hope to solve this problem together through copyright collective management organizations and industry associations. However, we are unwilling to put the 2006 The previous papers were directly removed from the shelves, which actually violated the needs of knowledge dissemination and academic exchanges.”

　　Sun Zhifeng, a partner of Beijing Zhuowei Law Firm, told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that my country's "Copyright Law" was officially implemented on June 1, 1991, especially when the "Copyright Law" was revised in 2001, it clarified that information network dissemination protection of rights.

Before the promulgation and implementation of the regulations, the law has always held a negative attitude towards unauthorized violations of the right of information network dissemination, and the intellectual property operators should also investigate the risks before the regulations are promulgated and implemented.

　　"If CNKI has not obtained the permission of the copyright owner for the papers before 2006, CNKI's behavior will hardly constitute fair use. In this case, CNKI may be suspected of copyright infringement." Beijing Guantao Zhongmao Law Firm Lawyer Li Hongjiang, the executive partner of the firm and director of the Intellectual Property Business Committee, also said that if a work is distributed on the Internet without the permission of the copyright owner, and it does not constitute a fair use in the sense of copyright law, it constitutes copyright infringement.

　　Remuneration standards are not yet clear

　　"The fruits of the creator's labor are arbitrarily taken away to make money, and even the creator himself has to pay for it." This problem prompted Zhao Dexin to embark on the road of rights protection.

The standard of remuneration for the dissemination of written works on the Internet is not yet clear, which is a common problem in the industry.

In this regard, Xiao Hong said that CNKI is improving the product pricing mechanism in the near future, and will set up a user committee to jointly participate in the price setting, and solve the high price problem through a transparent method.

　　How to balance "intellectual property protection" and "reasonable use of knowledge" is a key issue related to the development of the academic database industry.

"On the one hand, CNKI must ensure that authors get their due remuneration, and on the other hand, it is also necessary to allow authors' achievements to be widely disseminated. Therefore, we will consider optimizing the author's remuneration settlement method, increase author remuneration income, and make good works more profitable. ." Xiao Hong said.

　　According to the "Dissertation Remuneration Notice" published in October 2016 in the copyright notice at the bottom of the CNKI page, for the master's and doctoral degree thesis accepted and published by CNKI, the author can contact CNKI to receive the remuneration. The copyright owner of the thesis can get a one-time "CNKI network database general retrieval reading card" with a face value of 400 yuan and a cash remuneration of 100 yuan. The master's thesis copyright owner corresponds to a reading card of 300 yuan and 60 yuan in cash.

At the same time, the author will not be restricted from publishing in other channels after being accepted.

　　"We normally publish journal papers, with between 10,000 and 15,000 words, at least 800,000,000,000 yuan for manuscripts. The manuscript fee for master's and doctoral thesis is only a few dozen yuan, which is indeed a little less." Associate Professor Yu Hui of South China Normal University bluntly said.

　　Increasing the author's remuneration is more meaningful to increase the bargaining chip of the agreed license, and does not necessarily have the effect and consequence of exempting from tort liability or reducing legal risks.

"Intellectual property operating agencies should sort out the existing author's right confirmation and licensing system, find loopholes, take timely remedial measures for disputes over confirmation of rights, fill and block licensing loopholes in a timely manner, and temporarily remove those that cannot be resolved. " said Sun Zhifeng.

　　As for intellectual property protection and rational use of knowledge, Guo Bing told a reporter from Beijing Business Daily that intellectual property protection and rational use of knowledge require not only CNKI to take action, but also further clarification by the competent authorities.

"For a document data platform like HowNet, the copyright issue has always been tricky."

　　Legal risks remain

　　Regarding the legal risks that CNKI may face in the future, Guo Bing said that in addition to copyright disputes, CNKI still has legal risks in terms of abuse of market dominance and network security, which may bring greater challenges to CNKI in the future. .

　　In December 2021, Guo Bing filed a lawsuit against CNKI to the court, arguing that it abused its dominant market position.

On July 27, 2022, the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court has ruled to approve the application for withdrawal of the lawsuit filed on the 20th.

　　Guo Bing said that since CNKI has directly provided "duplication checking" services to individual users, and actively stopped the abuse of market dominance, his core claims have been fulfilled. Therefore, he applied to the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court for withdrawal of the lawsuit. , "As far as I know, this is the first major rectification completed by CNKI."

　　Li Hongjiang said that the Anti-Monopoly Law, which took effect on August 1, added new regulations on monopolistic behaviors implemented using data, algorithms, technology, and capital advantages, which has proved the determination of the legislative level to regulate monopoly behaviors in the digital economy. .

As the largest literature retrieval platform in China, CNKI owns a considerable amount of literature data and user data information, so it should pay attention to the management of data compliance, and avoid infringing on consumers' personal information or using data advantages, algorithms, Technological advantages implement monopolistic behavior.

　　On May 13, the State Administration for Market Regulation filed an investigation into CNKI's suspected monopolistic behavior according to the previous inspection.

On June 23, the Cybersecurity Review Office interviewed the person in charge of CNKI and announced the launch of a cybersecurity review on CNKI.

　　Beijing Business Daily reporter Tao Feng intern reporter Yuan Zerui