[Commentary] Live sports and games, short videos with only a few seconds, artificially generated works ... Are these contents protected by copyright law? In recent years, with the rapid development of digital and network technologies, new types of works and communication methods have emerged, and "digital copyright confusion" has brought great challenges to copyright protection. A few days ago, the "Amendment to the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China (Draft)" was submitted to the 17th Session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress for deliberation. In the draft, "film works and works created in a similar way to filming" were modified to "audiovisual works". On April 27, Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Research Center for Communication Law of China University of Political Science and Law, said in an interview that the revision of the draft will be more conducive to strengthening the protection of copyright in cyberspace.
[Same period] Zhu Wei, Deputy Director of the Research Center for Communication Law of China University of Political Science and Law
It turns out that we are talking about "movie works" or "kind of film works", so this "work" may not be able to cover some new works that have appeared (with) Internet technology. If the "Copyright Law" does not make adjustments, the copyright of such works may have different judgments in the same case in legal practice. For example, in this "Copyright Law" (draft amendment), we changed the name of this place to "Audiovisual Works", which covers various forms on the Internet, for example, is it a game live broadcast? For example, is short video counted? For example, is AI (artificial intelligence) synthetic works counted? These online and offline works as long as they can achieve "visual and listening" are covered by the protection of the "Copyright Law", which is much better than the original "movie works" or "like movie works" , And the range is huge.
[Explanation] Zhu Wei said that the current "deserved loss" is the main reason for the difficulty of copyright protection. The draft amendment also made an explanation on the upper limit of the amount of legal compensation for infringement, and increased the punishment for infringement.
[Same period] Zhu Wei, Deputy Director of the Research Center for Communication Law of China University of Political Science and Law
For example, the original statutory compensation (upper limit) was 500,000 yuan, but now the (upper limit) has become 5 million yuan, and a punitive compensation mechanism has been introduced. We all know that punitive damages in our country only appeared in the Consumer Protection Law and the Food Safety Law. Now finally in the Copyright Law, a punitive compensation mechanism has been fully introduced. This may make more people willing to defend the rights of their works.
[Explanation] In addition, the draft also made explanations in terms of work registration and supervision and law enforcement methods. Zhu Wei believes that after the introduction of the new bill, a wave of copyright protection will come. With the gradual improvement of laws and regulations, all network subjects should also avoid "stepping on the thunder and touching lines" when using online video, audio, and pictures.
[Same period] Zhu Wei, Deputy Director of the Research Center for Communication Law of China University of Political Science and Law
When we use pictures, we must look at the source of the picture. For example, the ownership of the picture basically has a source in the lower right corner, such as "X and X platform". Editing those film and television works into small videos, or taking some of other people's works into their own works, does not necessarily infringe. Some people say that infringement is not the case if you use a work. For example, if I want to study in class, can I do a PPT? There is no commercial interest to do PPT teaching, of course, in a reasonable range. But if (unauthorized) a large length of excerpts, simply without any comments, or for fans, in order to advertise, this situation is a typical infringement.
[Commentary] Zhu Wei said that the core of the Copyright Law is not to prevent use, but to encourage innovation and protect citizens ’property rights. After the "Copyright Law" is revised, the platform rules also need to be adjusted accordingly. Once the creator finds that his copyright is infringed, he can immediately use various means to protect his rights.
[Same period] Zhu Wei, Deputy Director of the Research Center for Communication Law of China University of Political Science and Law
No matter how long it is, as long as there is originality, even if it is only one second, even if it is only a picture, a silhouette, this is copyrighted, and this copyright does not need to be registered. If you find that your work has been infringed, you have to look at who infringed your rights. For example, some websites infringe, then the platform website is the content provider, you can directly sue him, or send him a lawyer letter directly, or make a statement, he must have a compensation obligation to you, and he must be Offline (infringing content).
Cheng Yu Beijing Report
Editor in charge: [Li Yuxin]