Is the WeChat public account freely reprinting others' articles infringing?
Our reporter Zhang Xuehong
Zhang Ling (pseudonym) has never been able to operate the WeChat official account. Seeing that the number of fans is not increasing but decreasing, Zhang Ling asked friends around about how to operate the official account.
"Find some articles that are highly read but do not declare that reprinting is prohibited, indicate the author and source, and then reprint them in your official account..." "Turn some famous works into audio to facilitate others to read. The audio is recorded by ourselves. , There is no infringement, right?” “There are a lot of e-book resources stored in my online disk, which can be shared with everyone for free by providing a link. Maybe it can increase the number of fans...” My friends have "made moves" .
Zhang Ling then began to try the above methods one by one, and the number of public account fans really increased.
When she was grinning, she received a letter of response notice.
Zhang Ling is puzzled, is this operation infringing?
In this regard, the judge of the Beijing Internet Court gave an answer.
Question: Does the WeChat official account infringe upon others' published articles?
Answer: Even if the author and source have been indicated at the time of reprinting, and a disclaimer has been made, stating "If it is involved in infringement, please contact to delete", and the reprinted article is not marked "Unauthorized reprinting is strictly prohibited." People's reprinting of related articles may still constitute infringement.
Zhang Ling reprinted articles published by others without authorization through the WeChat official account operated by Zhang Ling. Her behavior enabled the public to obtain the articles involved in the case at a time and place selected by her personally, which constituted an infringement of the right to spread information on the Internet.
In such cases, although the WeChat official account indicated the author and the source of the article when reprinting, the behavior only constitutes the protection of the author’s authorship, and it cannot be ignored that he did not obtain the author’s permission when disseminating the article involved. Infringement facts.
Question: Is the disclaimer such as "If it involves infringement, please contact to delete" is valid?
Answer: The disclaimer is not legally valid. This type of statement is actually a "safe haven" for network service providers, but it does not apply to network content providers. Regardless of whether it is declared or not, unauthorized reprinting constitutes infringement. .
Many articles will be marked "Unauthorized reprinting is strictly prohibited" when they are published, but this does not mean that articles without such a statement can be reprinted arbitrarily. Authorization and reprinting are mandatory provisions of the Copyright Law. The statement is only It is a further emphasis on related regulations.
The Copyright Law stipulates the specific circumstances of statutory permission, including statutory permission to reprint in newspapers and periodicals, and works that have been published in newspapers and periodicals, unless the right holder expressly declares that it is not allowed to reprint, other newspapers and periodicals can reprint without the permission of the right holder.
However, the statutory permission for reprinting in newspapers and periodicals does not extend to the network environment, because in reality, reprinting on the Internet is everywhere, and the authors are actually paid for it, and very few. If the statutory permission is allowed, the author’s benefits are actually difficult to obtain. Therefore, the unauthorized reprinting of published works on the Internet constitutes infringement.
Question: Is it infringing to convert other people's works into audio and post on WeChat official account?
Answer: WeChat official account operators convert articles or books published by others into audio and provide them in the WeChat official account, so that the public can obtain relevant articles or books at a time and place selected by themselves, forming an information network for copyright owners Violation of the right of communication.
Regardless of whether the form of expression of the work involved in the case has been changed, and whether the infringer has spent time and energy, when disseminating others' works to unspecified publics, permission from the copyright owner should be obtained, otherwise it will constitute infringement.
If the audio provided to the public is not recorded by themselves, the WeChat official account operator may infringe on the rights of recording producers and performers in addition to infringing the copyright owner’s information network dissemination rights.
The Copyright Law stipulates that performers have the right to permit others to disseminate their performances to the public through information networks, and sound recording producers also have the right to information network dissemination of their sound recordings.
Q: Is it possible to link the article to the cloud disk address?
Answer: The user can obtain the web disk download link address of the relevant article or book by clicking on "Read the full text" at the end of the tweet on the WeChat official account or by following the WeChat official account and entering the name of the article or book.
This behavior does not directly upload or store other people's articles or books, but links to the cloud disk address, and does not directly crack the genuine e-book website through deep linking technology. It also constitutes an infringement and constitutes an infringement on the right of information network dissemination. Infringe.
The public can obtain the link and verification code of the network disk involved in the case by following the WeChat official account and according to the relevant content of the article, and then browse and download e-books online through the network disk. The above behavior is to provide unauthorized e-books to the public without permission. Any public who wants to obtain the books involved in the case only needs to follow the guidelines of the WeChat official account, and they can obtain them at the time and place selected by them, which constitutes an infringement of the right of information network dissemination.
Providing the cloud disk link address and password of the e-book on the WeChat official account does not constitute fair use.
Although the e-books involved in the case are still stored in personal online disks, through the medium of the WeChat public account, online disk resources are no longer only for personal learning and appreciation, but to enable unspecified members of the public at the time and place selected by them. Obtain the effect of the e-book involved in the case.
During the operation of the official account, the operator of the WeChat official account should broaden the exposure of the official account through legal channels.
Do not provide text works in various forms such as reprinting, converting into audio, providing download links, etc. without the permission of others in pursuit of attention.
Exploiting its own characteristics and devoting itself to providing original content is the long-term solution to attract fans.