Chinanews.com client, Beijing, April 27th (Reporter Song Yusheng) "As a web writer, I have been deeply victimized by piracy from the beginning of my career. What impressed me most was that the fight against piracy in the early years destroyed a famous upstream piracy. The website Pineapple Novel.com, so my 24-hour subscription number rose by 50% almost overnight.” Speaking of the experience of piracy, the online literature writer "His Majesty the King" recalled such a past.
Web piracy cannot be ignored
On April 26th, World Intellectual Property Day, the third-party data analysis agency Analysys released the "White Paper on Copyright Protection of Chinese Online Literature 2021".
Statistics show that the problem of piracy in the field of Chinese online literature is still not to be ignored: the scale of China's online literature piracy losses will rise to 6.028 billion yuan in 2020.
This number has increased by 6.9% year-on-year.
Screenshot of "White Paper on Copyright Protection of Chinese Online Literature 2021"
As of December 2020, the overall monthly active users of key piracy platforms have reached 7.274 million, the average monthly usage time per person is close to 19 hours, and the monthly average number of launches per person has reached 115 times.
However, online literature writers frequently suffer infringements as high as 42%. Unauthorized dissemination of original works through information networks, plagiarism, and unauthorized production of original works into audio books are the three most common types.
The white paper analysis believes that the abuse of new technologies, multiple channels of transmission, and the realization of coverage of piracy in the entire industry chain are the main factors for the increase in the scale of piracy at this stage.
Screenshot of "White Paper on Copyright Protection of Chinese Online Literature 2021"
The works of "Xianzhi", an online literary writer and the original author of the TV series "Brilliant Heart Like Jade", have also encountered piracy.
In her opinion, when a writer encounters piracy, it is very difficult to trace back and provide evidence, which not only affects the creation, but is also vulnerable to psychological harm caused by piracy in the process of rights protection, causing many authors to stop creating.
In response to this phenomenon, Chen Qirong, vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association and director of the Internet Literature Committee, said that the territory of Internet literature is now getting bigger and bigger, risks and challenges are increasing, the forms of piracy are becoming more and more diversified, and the importance of copyright protection. , Necessity and urgency have become increasingly apparent and strengthened.
Cheng Wu, CEO of China Reading Group, Vice President of Tencent and CEO of Tencent Pictures, said that with the development of online literature as an important source of IP in the cultural industry, copyright protection directly affects the sustainability of creation and the high-quality development of culture. .
Protecting copyright means protecting the creative power of writers and the driving force of the source of cultural and creative industries.
Data map: Interior view of a bookstore in Beijing.
Photo by Song Yusheng, a reporter from China News Service
What is the difficulty in cracking down on pirated web documents?
According to the data shown in the "White Paper on Copyright Protection of Chinese Online Literature 2021", in recent years, although the scale of piracy losses of Chinese online literature has declined to a certain extent, it has remained at a scale of several billion yuan.
Is the relevant agency not cracking down on it?
the answer is negative.
The industry generally believes that in recent years, with the strong support of the competent authorities and the continuous investment in rights protection of various enterprises, the copyright environment of the online literature industry has been initially purified.
In June 2020, China Reading Group launched the Industry Genuine Alliance, uniting various cooperation channels to support legal content and launching centralized inspections and purification. In the same year, the China Copyright Association's Text Copyright Working Committee was established and issued a joint initiative of "Text Copyright Protection in Action". Work with mainstream publishers and major search platforms to jointly explore and establish a mechanism for protecting genuine content.
It is understood that only the Reading Group, in 2020, filed a total of 1941 rights protection lawsuits against 1941 works.
Now that the industry has begun to pay attention to combating piracy, why is the field of online literature still "piracy rampant"?
In this regard, the white paper pointed out that comparing digital content industries such as video, music, and games horizontally, the copyright protection of online literature is more difficult and the situation more severe: first, new technologies have made the trend of concealment and maturation of the piracy industry chain more obvious; second, Piracy platforms have accumulated a large amount of traffic, and commercial realization relies on stakeholders such as search engines and advertising agencies, and multi-party benefit transmission has increased the difficulty of combating; third, the full promotion and cultivation of genuine awareness in the user market will take time.
According to Cui Guobin, director of the Intellectual Property Law Research Center of Tsinghua University Law School, the network environment itself makes it more difficult to combat piracy.
"In the past, there were only a few publishing houses. If the publishing houses can be restrained, piracy will basically be eliminated, but it is very difficult in the Internet age." He believes that in the Internet environment, infringers are more scattered, and the cost of accountability is less. Increase accordingly.
When the dissemination behavior is extremely convenient and scattered, it will make it difficult to combat piracy.
At the same time, there are many cooperation mechanisms that provide profit space for pirated individuals and small websites, which makes it difficult to pinch the source of piracy.
Data map: In the book fair, readers experience an immersive audio-visual experience in the "time capsule".
Photo by Zhou Zhuo
What to do in the future?
Faced with the characteristics of internet communication, is internet literature really at a loss for piracy?
Chen Qirong believes that to eradicate the piracy of online literature, three-pronged approach should be taken: legally, relying on legislative norms to govern; technically, using technical means to regulate, block, and even prevent piracy; economically, economically Means to cut off the chain of interests.
The law can provide a standard reference for piracy management and accountability, and the use of technical management methods to overcome piracy technical means and cut off the chain of interests of piracy from the root cause can effectively combat piracy forces from the outside to the inside.
On June 1st this year, the newly revised "Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China" will be implemented, further improving the punitive damages system for infringement, as well as the definition and type of works. The legitimate rights and interests of creators will be more effectively protected in the future.
Liu Chuntian, president of the China Intellectual Property Law Research Association, is optimistic about the prospects of online literature copyright protection, "The new Copyright Law adapts to the development of new Internet technologies, adapts to the background of the new era under market economy conditions, and innovation drives high-quality development. The new economic mechanism and the new legal background for the implementation of the "Civil Code" ensure the basic order and basic legal rules for the development of the online literature market at the level of top-level design."
However, the management of online literature piracy and copyright protection are not a matter of one party. This requires the joint efforts of the state, enterprises, and users in legal, technical, and market education.
Data map: A boy is experiencing "VR reading".
Photo by Liu Zhankun
Some people in the industry have made it clear that they particularly hope to unite all parties to establish an industry copyright chain through technical means to help the entire industry improve its ability to control piracy.
Zheng Xuanyu, deputy director of the Institute of Intellectual Property Law of China University of Political Science and Law, also believes that the development of Internet technology should be fully utilized in the governance process of online literature piracy and infringement, such as whether blockchain technology can be applied to the governance system of online literature piracy and infringement. among.
"At present, the country's governance system and governance capabilities are gradually modernizing, people's awareness of the rule of law is gradually increasing, and governance measures against online literature piracy are also constantly following up." Chen Qirong is confident in the healthy development of China's online literature. "The problem of piracy will be fundamentally changed, and when the phenomenon of online literature piracy is thoroughly curbed, it will be the day when China's online literature will flourish."
(Finish)