The film and television industry collectively appealed twice in April to the Copyright Administration of the Central Propaganda Department to actively respond
to say "no" to short video piracy infringement
On April 25, at a press conference held by the Information Office of the State Council, Yu Cike, director of the Copyright Administration of the Central Propaganda Department, stated that he would continue to increase the crackdown on infringements in the short video field and resolutely rectify short video platforms and self-media. , The infringement behavior of the public account production operator who copied, performed, and disseminated other people's films, music and other works without authorization.
Joint initiative
Stop "short video chasing drama" and say no to "representative filming of Reuters"
On April 23, more than 70 domestic film and television media organizations and more than 500 artists issued a joint proposal, calling on short video platforms to promote copyright content compliance management and clean up unauthorized content.
Earlier on April 9th, 15 associations including China Television Art Exchange Association and China TV Drama Production Industry Association joined 5 video platforms including iQiyi, Tencent Video, Youku, Mango TV, and Migu Video, as well as Noon Sunshine and Huace 53 film and television companies including Film and Television, Ningmeng Film and Television, and Ciwen Media jointly issued the "Joint Statement on the Protection of Film Copyright."
On the 23rd, the joint proposal was signed by more than 500 individuals including Li Bingbing, Zhao Liying, Yang Mi, Huang Xuan, Zhang Ruoyun, Yang Ying, and Di Lieba.
The industry has collectively voiced two large-scale infringements of short videos within one month, which shows the urgent need to reverse and change the status quo.
Judging from the content of the joint proposal, the directionality is more clear than the previous "Joint Statement", including advocating the short video platform to clean up unauthorized cutting, handling, quick viewing, and compilation of film and television content from today; through keywords, Technical means such as video fingerprint comparison to prevent unauthorized cutting, handling, quick viewing and compilation of the upload of film and television content; from now on, we will strictly follow the "authorization before use", and clean up unauthorized cutting and transportation in your account , Quick Watch and Compilation and other film and television works content.
At the same time, the production and operator of the official account has proposed that without authorization from now on, not arbitrarily release film and television content related to the actors during the filming process, on-site materials, Reuters videos, etc.
In short, all the things advocated are to remind short video platform and public account operators to raise copyright awareness and promote copyright content compliance management.
Industry chaos
Can't just sit back and watch the brutal growth of short video platforms
The user battle between long videos and short videos has been around for a long time. The issue of cutting and transporting films and TV dramas has actually caused copyright disputes, but they have not been resolved for a long time.
At the beginning of the rise of short video platforms, the filmmakers took a fancy to the publicity and diversion effect of short video platforms, and actively cooperated with short video platforms to actively release materials. Short videos were once regarded as an important means of diversion and marketing.
On the other hand, users choose to spend fragmented time on the short video platform to feed a large number of film and television editing marketing accounts.
After a barbaric growth stage, these short videos have attracted the attention of a large number of users, but they have also been on the fringe of copyright for a long time, and have even become a phenomenon of infringement and piracy.
The hit drama is the hardest hit area for cutting and moving.
A large amount of content cuts out will inevitably lead to the loss of the content of the drama, and thus the loss of users.
Fragmented content is also more likely to cause the content of film and television dramas to be misinterpreted and expressed. For example, Chen Fei, the former producer of "Thirty Only", said reluctantly: "Gu Jia’s marriage line was portrayed in a realistic way, but it was Various short video cuts that were released in advance and repeatedly strengthened allowed the audience to read and interpret as a'cool drama mode', and finally made the audience's emotions nowhere to rest."
In reality, more and more viewers have developed the habit of using short videos to finish a drama: In addition to the temptation for free, "fragmented viewing" and "repetitive viewing of personal favorite clips" have indeed satisfied some people's views on TV dramas. "Just need", after all, a TV series with 40 groups at every turn requires a lot of determination to watch it completely in the high-tempo of the moment.
Film and television editing public accounts are aimed at this kind of mentality, creating "duanzi dramas, hot search dramas" without copyright awareness.
"Short video chasing drama" not only diverts a large number of users and playback data of long video platforms that have spent huge sums of money to buy copyrights, but also enables short video platforms to rely on almost zero-cost content expenditures to harvest huge amounts of traffic, and through advertisements and goods. The traffic is monetized in the form and shared with the relevant account operators.
All parties say
Protect copyright and pay for premium content
Regarding this proposal, all parties have expressed their opinions based on different positions.
The blogger of a short video platform film and television commentary said that based on past experience, the copyright boundary of film and television is very vague and the rules are not clear. Some can not be published with any fragments, and some even if the whole show is uploaded in segments. Obstacles, "look at the platform wherever you are."
On the short video platform, in addition to these authors who rely on "second creation" copyrighted works to obtain traffic monetization, there are also many fans and short video enthusiasts who entertain themselves.
An author said that it is currently in the wait-and-see stage. If the “second creation” really needs to purchase copyright in the future, he will consider the price of copyright and his degree of love for the material. He may spend money for his hobbies, but it will certainly not be the case. Now it is "highly productive".
The famous producer Yu Jinwei said that protecting creators’ copyrights and paying for high-quality content, whether long or short, is the foundation for building a healthy ecology and sound development of the film and television industry, and it is conducive to achieving a win-win situation for all parties.
Yu Jinwei said that the TV drama industry is still in a difficult process of climbing, and only a few TV stations still insist on broadcasting the first round of dramas. A considerable amount of the production cost of copyrighted dramas depends on the purchase and digestion of the three video platforms of Youku, iQiyi and Tencent. , "During the market downturn, the long video platform objectively gave film and television companies the possibility of survival."
However, the free "short video platform chasing drama" has made the distribution of copyrighted dramas obvious, and the revenue of the paid platform has dropped sharply. In the end, the pain of being injured will inevitably be transmitted from the long video platform to the film and television production company.
"The prosperity of short video is a good thing. After making a profit, it should feed back the film and television industry that outputs content, and if the current situation does not change, it will be fished out in the long run."
In the final analysis, the “handling” of short videos is a lack of copyright awareness and a lag in new laws and regulations.
The statement made by the Copyright Administration of the Central Propaganda Department yesterday morning was a positive response to the voice of film and television rights holders.
The Copyright Administration also stated that this year it will vigorously promote short video platforms, self-media, and public account operators to fully perform their main responsibilities, effectively strengthen the construction of the copyright system, improve the copyright complaint handling mechanism, and effectively perform the obligation of reporting on illegal and criminal clues and cooperating in investigations.
Text/Reporter Yang Wenjie
Coordinator/Photo courtesy of Man Yi/Visual China
The lawyer said
How do short video platforms and creators infringe?
What are the types and characteristics of short video infringement?
How do relevant laws and regulations define and punish short video infringements?
What legal responsibilities should the infringing party bear?
With these questions, a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily interviewed lawyer Wang Jun, the chief partner of Beijing Tao'an Law Firm, who has been acting for a long time in intellectual copyright cases in the entertainment industry.
Short video creators have 5 tricks for infringement
Wang Jun said that short video infringement mainly includes creator infringement and dissemination platform infringement.
Creators usually have these five direct infringement methods: "Secure", that is, the entire short video is transported and forwarded to the platform in its entirety. These short videos include film and television dramas, tidbits, ending songs, and some Internet celebrity intellectual property (IP) short videos Etc.; "Long-demolition and short-length", that is, cutting long videos such as popular movies and TV series into several short videos, and uploading them to the platform; "Picture-in-picture", deleting the beginning and ending of the original work, directly cutting or assembling the core picture into a new small Video dissemination; "secondary creation", the second creation of long videos or short videos of classic movies and televisions without permission, to form a "new" short video; "micro-processing forwarding", the original short video is deleted from the beginning and the end, Small changes such as the logo and mosaics and screen zooming are uploaded to the platform for dissemination.
Pretending to be infringement by using algorithms from media platforms
In terms of short video platform infringement, direct infringements include: the platform party directly uploads infringing short video content, which is relatively rare at present; the platform party entrusts a third party to jointly complete the infringing short video, and the third party uses it to register on the platform The account uploaded the infringing short video to the platform; the platform internal personnel registered a large number of self-media accounts, the platform disguised as the self-media, uploaded classified, and recommended to users through algorithms, abusing the "safe haven principle" to avoid responsibility.
"Some short video platforms have launched various training programs to encourage and induce registered users to upload infringing short videos, and the platform actively recommends them to netizens through algorithms; although they only provide users with storage space services, they have not fulfilled the'notice-delete' obligation ; Although it only provides users with storage space services, they know or should know that network users use their network services to infringe on the civil rights of others and have not taken necessary measures. These are all indirect infringements of short video platforms." Wang Jun said.
Then, in judicial practice, how should the above-mentioned short video infringement be determined?
Wang Jun believes that the nature and purpose of the use of the work, the type of the used work, the quantity and quality of the used part, the impact of the use on the potential market or value of the work, and other factors should be comprehensively considered. If the use conflicts and unreasonably damages the legitimate interests of the author, or improperly utilizes the commercial value and copyright value of the work of others, it constitutes infringement.
What are the responsibilities of short video infringers?
It is worth mentioning that the "Beijing Treaty on Audition Performances" that took effect on April 28 last year clarified the copyright of performers, that is, performers (such as singers, actors, etc.) legally enjoy the license or prohibit others from using their works in performances. The rights of a series of performance activities such as the image, action, and sound of the company, including the right to live broadcast, record, produce and distribute audio-visual products, and spread through the Internet.
In Wang Jun’s view, the two successive large-scale rights protection joint statements of film and television actors in April this year show that they hate short video creators and their platforms for directly embezzling their performance bridges for infringement and spreading, and they have publicly stood up and put forward corresponding measures. Claims.
"These two rights protection declarations in the film and television industry have not only had a great social impact, but there is also a phenomenon that the rights holders of long videos are preparing to authorize the development of short videos for long videos. From the perspective of market considerations, as long videos The right holders can authorize or use them commercially. That is, they can edit, re-develop and re-create their works to form short video works for dissemination. Then these legitimate interests should belong to the right holders who protect the original." Wang Jun said.
There are also some short video creators who have such suspicions. They only help some film and television drama companies to do public welfare publicity, and believe that there is no infringement.
In this regard, Wang Jun believes that to edit and use film and television dramas, we must first obtain the consent and permission of the copyright owner.
In addition, this has nothing to do with commercial or public welfare. The public welfare act itself is not a statutory license and is not a reason for fair use.
Besides, even if this behavior has no direct benefits, it is also a commercial behavior to earn traffic and clicks indirectly.
What legal responsibilities should be borne by the short video infringers?
Wang Jun said that on top of the statutory responsibilities such as stopping the infringement, eliminating the impact, compensating for losses, and apologizing, with the official implementation of the Civil Code on January 1 this year, and the "Copyright Law" that will be implemented on June 1 this year. The "Amendment" clearly stipulates the principle of punitive compensation for copyright infringement, which greatly increases the cost of infringement.
For intentional infringement, if the circumstances are serious, punitive damages of more than one time and less than five times the amount of compensation may be applied.
If the actual loss of the right holder, the illegal income of the infringer, and the royalties are difficult to calculate, the people’s court shall, based on the circumstances of the infringement, award compensation of not less than 500 yuan but not more than 5 million yuan, for example, if the right holder can prove the association If the amount of loss or the normal market authorization fee standard, then 1 to 5 times punitive damages can be claimed based on this standard, and the right holder has the opportunity to make a profit through rights protection.
For works that are known to be others, they are still disseminated through illegal editing, long-cutting and short-cutting. Such acts constitute copyright infringement and may also be suitable for the principle of punitive damages.
This group of articles / our reporter Zhang Enjie
Case study
"Flying Screen" APP
Online broadcasting of "listen to music and know drama" function constitutes infringement
In May 2020, the Beijing Internet Court announced the infringement case of “listening to music and knowing drama”. Shanghai Xiaoming Enterprise Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Shanghai Xiaoming Company”) developed and operated the “Flying Screen” APP to provide “listening”. The function of "Sound Knowing Drama" was used by Xi'an Jiayunshe Digital Entertainment Distribution Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xi'an Jiayunshe Company"), which has the right to spread the information network of the TV series of "My Team Leader", to infringe on the work information network Prosecuted to the Beijing Internet Court for the right of communication.
The court held that: the defendant edited and uploaded the works involved in the case to its own server, and compared the sounds provided by network users through its nested "listening to music and recognizing drama" function, providing users with fragments of the works involved and realizing online playback.
Although the defendant’s above actions are only for each identification of network users, they have placed the works involved in the case on the network server so that the public can obtain the content of the works through the defendant’s APP at the time and place selected by the public.
The defendant’s actions have violated the plaintiff’s right to disseminate information through the Internet.
At the same time, after network users have obtained fragments of the works involved in the case using the function of "listening to music and knowing drama", they can also choose to publish the fragments of related works in different columns set by the defendant's APP.
As for the video clips that have been released, the public can also obtain the works involved in the case at a time and place selected by them.
Because the defendant in this case was unable to prove the specific publisher information of the fragments of the works involved, it should be determined that the defendants were the direct providers of the fragments of the works involved in the APP operated by them, and infringed the plaintiff's right of information network dissemination.
The first instance ordered the defendant to immediately stop the infringement and compensate the plaintiff for economic losses of 60,000 yuan.
Shu Mi Technology
Unauthorized use of 382 screenshots of TV series
According to my country’s current "Copyright Law" Article 48 and other relevant regulations, the act of editing rights works without permission and publishing them on the Internet generally constitutes an infringement of the rights of information network dissemination, and the infringer may be required to stop the infringement and eliminate the infringement. Civil liability for influence, an apology, and compensation for losses.
In May 2020, the second instance of the "Illustrated Movies" case was pronounced. Shumi Technology Company used 382 screenshots from the TV series "Three Lives Three Worlds Ten Miles of Peach Blossom" without authorization, which did not constitute fair use and violated the information network dissemination enjoyed by Youku. Right to order 30,000 yuan in compensation for economic losses.
The "Illustrated Movie" case is the first case of this kind in the country. The trial result of this case clearly indicates the boundary of the commercial development of the film and television market and the rational use of film and television. At the same time, it will have an important impact on the picture or short video interpretation of the film and television industry.
This group of articles / our reporter Zhang Enjie
Thinking
Rectify the chaos of short video infringement
What are the difficulties to overcome?
The "2020 China Online Short Video Copyright Monitoring Report" released by the 12426 Copyright Monitoring Center shows that from 2019 to October 2020 alone, a total of 16,026,900 suspected infringement links were monitored, and the rate of infringement of exclusive original authors was as high as 92.9%.
Respecting intellectual property rights and safeguarding original rights are the bottom line for protecting film and television creation.
Relevant laws and regulations to protect the rights and interests of authors are also constantly being improved.
However, in the short video environment, there are still some difficulties in the specific implementation of original protection.
The first thing to bear is: how to clarify the responsibility of the platform in the process of infringement.
As early as 2006, my country introduced the "safe haven principle" in the "Regulations on the Protection of the Right to Propagate Information Networks."
This principle refers to internationally accepted practices and constructs a "notice-delete-forward-counter-notice-restoration" network copyright infringement handling process.
The other corresponding method is the "red flag principle", that is, the network service provider does not actively delete or disconnect the link when it "knows" or "should be aware" of the infringement of the work (production) provided by the service object , Still constitutes infringement.
At present, whether it is “imitation” or “plagiarism” of short videos, whether it is laws, regulations or platform rules, there are still ambiguities.
In addition, in the Internet environment, original works are infringed in various forms, concealed means, and scattered in content.
Adopting the "red flag principle" for short video infringement issues is not small for the platform.
In contrast, the "safe haven principle" is relatively loose.
But precisely because of this, some platforms have abused the "safe harbour principle" such as "acquisitively allowing infringers to use, waiting for the right holder to notify the deletion, or even delaying the deletion".
In addition, in the issue of short video infringement, what kind of relationship should be built between copyright owners, platforms, film and television secondary creators, and audiences?
On this issue, the parties themselves are not opposed.
While protecting the copyright of film and television, we must also leave enough space for the second creation.
In the Internet age, everyone is an author and everyone is a user.
How to clarify the boundaries of copyright owners, platforms, and secondary creators of film and television in law and mechanism?
How to establish a more efficient and flexible copyright authorization system in today's vast amount of information?
This requires further consideration by all parties concerned.
According to Xinhua News Agency