Original scripts are frequently plagiarized, authors rarely defend their rights
Reporter investigates script killing script piracy
□ Zhang Shoukun, a trainee reporter of this newspaper
□ Our reporter Zhao Li
Xiaobai, the creator of script killing, has been plagued by copyright issues since he entered the industry - his works have been repeatedly plagiarized.
Some time ago, he sent the full draft of the script he created to the publisher, but only received an unsealed non-disclosure agreement from the other party. He expressed his disapproval of this and explicitly asked the other party not to conduct the script test.
The other party agreed verbally, but turned around and registered the copyright of the work and pre-sold it on multiple platforms.
Later, after several months of rights protection and litigation to the court, the two parties negotiated to resolve the issue.
Xiaobai's experience is not an exception.
A reporter from the "Rule of Law Daily" recently investigated and found that script killing has become one of the important ways for young people to socialize and entertain online and offline. The frequent occurrence of copyright infringement has adversely affected both player experience and the development of the industry itself.
Various forms of infringement
Washing is common
Script Killing is a role-playing, reasoning, and experience-based game. There are two ways of "playing books" online and offline. Offline physical stores usually set up scenes according to the script. Players are in the same room, and through language , expressions, conversations, body movements and other performance stories; online script killing is a role-playing game that players use to voice in the same network "room" through an app or a small program.
According to the "2021 China Script Killing Industry User Research and Benchmarking Enterprise Case Analysis Report" released by iiMedia Research, the market size of China's script killing industry is expected to increase to 23.89 billion yuan by the end of 2022.
From creation to player experience, script killing generally has to go through three links: creation, distribution and store owner.
The author creates the script, distributes it, collects and sells the script, and the store obtains the script through distributors, franchisees, direct purchase, etc.
The reporter's investigation found that copyright issues may arise in every link from script creation to sales.
Xiaobai told reporters that in addition to plagiarism when the manuscript is received, it is also very common for the publisher to "wash the manuscript" by changing the background of the story after the manuscript is rejected. The weak position in this link is often difficult to safeguard rights.
The reporter learned that with the popularity of the industry and the influx of a large number of creators, the publisher of script killing has gradually taken the initiative, and only accepting the full manuscript has become a clear requirement for most publishers.
In this case, the creator can only maintain the rights and interests of the work by signing a non-disclosure agreement.
But in Xiaobai's view, in many cases, the non-disclosure agreement is just a gentleman's agreement, and some bad publishers often use the A subject to sign with the creator, and then wash the manuscript in the name of the B issue.
And some large issuers will even refuse to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Brother Tie, who has opened an offline script killing shop in Hedong District, Tianjin for two years, told reporters that script killings are generally divided into boxed books, city-limited books, and exclusive books. Boxed books are a few hundred yuan, and city-limited books are one. There are only two or three stores in the city that can obtain authorization, and the price is generally over a thousand yuan for a copy, and the price of an exclusive copy is more expensive.
The use of pirated scripts will be resisted by players and peers, but there are still some shop owners who buy and use pirated versions to save costs.
"The new high-quality script kills are packaged, and thousands of copies can be directly printed in neat layout" "high-definition version, high-definition pictures, full clues, and package updates"... The reporter used "script killing" as the keyword to search on multiple e-commerce platforms and found that there are There are a lot of shops that sell digital scripts to kill scripts.
Some stores claim to be officially licensed, and a script is sold for only a few yuan.
Where do these cheap scripts come from?
An industry insider told reporters that some script killer creators will encounter the problem that their early submissions are called back by the other party, but their ideas are stolen by the other party; Experience different characters in different scenes, and it is easy to "assemble" a complete book; in the process of playing script killing, there are still cases where players directly scan and copy the script.
Wang Zhengzhi, director of the Intellectual Property Committee of the All-China Lawyers Association and a partner of Gao Wen Law Firm, said that in addition to written works, if the illustrations used in the script are original, they constitute works of art. If the seller prints and sells it without permission, it constitutes a Violation of reproduction and distribution rights.
"The issue of performance rights is also involved in the operation of the script killing store." Wang Zhengzhi said that many script killings have a DM (host) role. As the core of the script killing game, the DM leads the scene according to the specific script plot, content, etc. Personnel carry out role-playing activities, and the players, namely the audience, are constantly changing, which constitutes the act of DMs publicly performing the script to the unspecified public by performing the text content and plot of the script, without the permission of the copyright owner. If his works constitute an infringement of the right of performance, he shall bear corresponding legal responsibilities.
"It is worth noting that, according to the provisions of my country's current copyright law, copyright law protects expression but not ideas. The universal rules and gameplay designed in games and competitions belong to the category of ideas and are often not protected by copyright law." Beijing Yinghe Lawyer Xiao Yuncheng, a lawyer at the firm, said that in judicial practice, some courts believe that if the specific presentation of the rules of the game is original, it can also constitute a work.
lack of awareness of rights
Condoning piracy
Although there are many infringements in the industry, there are not many cases of real rights protection and successful rights protection like Xiaobai.
The reporter searched the China Judgment Documents Network and found that there were very few relevant cases.
What is the reason?
Confirmation of rights is the beginning of copyright protection. The most common way of confirming rights of scripts is copyright registration.
However, in practice, many creators do not understand that rights can be protected through copyright registration or electronic depository, which makes it difficult to protect rights when they are infringed.
He Keren, a lawyer from Jincheng Tongda Law Firm, believes that the piracy and infringement of script killing is less difficult, low-cost, and highly concealed. In the network environment, it is highly decentralized and difficult to protect rights. Because the value of a single script is not high , The copyright protection period is long and the benefits are limited. In the face of infringement, most practitioners believe that it is better to create new scripts than to spend a lot of time and energy on rights protection.
In Xiao Yuncheng's view, there is currently a dilemma in legal protection of script killing copyrights.
"For example, if the operator who kills the script directly buys pirated copies for business purposes, according to relevant laws and regulations, it is only to confiscate and destroy the infringing copies. It is difficult to hold the merchants accountable, so it is impossible to effectively curb the illegal behavior of the merchants."
A staff member in the script killing industry told reporters that an obvious feature of the script entertainment industry is that the upstream and downstream are very discrete, and the scale is not large compared to other industries.
The upstream is the script studio, which is doing a good job of publishing more than a dozen books a year, and the downstream is the store. There are dozens of chains in this industry that have a very high degree of chain.
"Most businesses are small and medium-sized enterprises, and there are no leading companies in the industry. For the creation and use of scripts, they cannot effectively drive management and establish a good order."
He Keren said that after several years of development, a relatively complete industry chain has been formed in the script killing industry, but whether it is script creators, platforms, stores or players, there are various infringements.
This is related to the fact that the current operating mechanism of each link is relatively scattered and chaotic, the lack of relatively scientific and unified rules and guidelines, and the sound and standardized contract texts.
"Unfortunately, some stores and consumers do not reject the scripts obtained by illegal means to save costs, and even take the initiative to buy them, which has greatly affected the enthusiasm of the original authors, and it is difficult for the sellers and operating stores to rely on high-quality scripts to gain a competitive advantage. , and the entry of low-quality scripts into the market also makes players feel bad, affects word-of-mouth, and adversely affects the entire industry." In He Keren's view, a large number of plagiarism has disrupted the development order of the industry and has become a hindrance to scripts. Killing the biggest obstacle to the sustainable and healthy development of this emerging industry.
"In general, the scripted entertainment industry has not yet formed an atmosphere of respect for intellectual property rights. The creators lack the awareness and knowledge of rights protection, are lazy in rights protection, and lack industry self-discipline, punishment and other mechanisms. Such 'condoning' has also led to the proliferation of piracy." Wang Zhengzhi said.
Industry self-examination and self-discipline
form a protective force
On April 1, in order to standardize scripted entertainment business activities such as "Script Killing" and "Escape Room", the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and other five departments issued the "Notice on Regulating Script Entertainment Business Activities (Draft for Comment)", which intends to regulate script entertainment business units. Within 30 natural days from the date of operation, the address of the business site and the script name, author, profile, age range and other information used by the site shall be reported to the county-level cultural and tourism administration where the business site is located through the National Cultural Market Technology Supervision and Service Platform. Department filing.
During the National Two Sessions this year, some representatives suggested that the State Press and Publication Administration, on the basis of the original book number issued by the publishing house, should add a new version number of "Script Killing" to the publishing house, and assign the offline boxed "Script Killing" to the publishing house. The management scope of publications, the online "Script Killing" App and its distribution platform are respectively included in the management scope of online games and online literature.
Kong Ming, secretary general of the China Culture and Entertainment Industry Association, said that the offline use of scripted entertainment products is basically in stores as entertainment props. With the continuous improvement of the quality of scripted products, it is not ruled out that some products have the value of scripted entertainment props. It can also become an excellent literary work, and even adapted into a film and television work.
If it develops in this direction and conforms to the legal characteristics of publications, of course, legal publishing procedures should be performed in accordance with the requirements of publications.
Kong Ming believes that the current development of scripted entertainment is in its infancy, and most of the scripted entertainment products may be difficult to meet the requirements of publications, or that these creators have no idea of making their products into publications at all.
Therefore, first of all, it is necessary to check the content in accordance with national laws, regulations and standards to ensure copyright compliance.
On this basis, it is necessary to avoid unnecessary disputes caused by the lack of understanding of policies and regulations, making such entertainment props similar in form to publications.
In order to make the scripted entertainment industry develop better and healthier, practitioners have also taken various measures to maintain copyright.
At present, the staff of "Little Black Detective", the largest script killing script trading platform in China, told reporters that "Little Black Detective" and "Right Protection Knight" cooperated to help more than 50 script creators who first settled on the platform. The copyright registration is free of charge, and the importance of copyright registration is continuously promoted to the script studios that later settle in, and at the same time, copyright subsidies are provided.
Last year, the "Little Black Detective" script "Genuine Alliance" logo was launched.
In Xiaobai's view, registering the copyright of a work as soon as possible is the main method to prevent the work from being plagiarized by the full text, but it still cannot solve the problem of manuscript washing.
He suggested that the creative manuscripts should be kept, the creative process should be preserved, and copyright registration should be carried out in a timely manner. In addition, attention should be paid to the subject of the non-disclosure agreement.
Xiao Yuncheng said that in order to regulate the development of the scripted entertainment industry, the work of confirming the rights of original scripts should be strengthened.
After the script creation is completed, the creator should promptly determine the ownership through copyright registration, notarization, etc., and there are convenient electronic evidence collection methods such as time stamps and blockchain, so that the rights can be protected in a timely and legal manner in the event of infringement.
At the same time, we call on relevant departments to carry out special governance to combat piracy and infringement in this industry in a timely manner.
He Keren suggested that the government guide industry organizations to build a copyright protection system at the front end of the industry by formulating self-discipline rules, regulating and guiding copyright transactions, and strengthening copyright protection training and publicity.
At the same time, strengthen the construction of industry organizations, provide practitioners with professional rights protection guidance services, and cooperate with professional legal institutions to provide legal support to effectively resolve the problems of high cost and poor effect in a single case; for prominent and serious infringements, industry associations can Establish an industry credit disciplinary mechanism to assist copyright management departments in advancing administrative law enforcement.
In the opinion of many interviewees, in order to form a joint force to promote the sustainable and healthy development of the entire industry, the majority of script killing players should also consciously resist piracy.
"To manage copyright issues in the scripted entertainment industry, practitioners need to strictly abide by relevant national laws and regulations, and have the courage to assume social responsibilities to protect the legitimate rights and interests of users. To achieve the purpose of effectively combating piracy and continuously creating value with genuine content resources, creators are required. , issuers, operators, capital parties and many other stakeholders participate together, with the help of high-tech, comprehensive use of judicial protection, administrative protection, criminal protection and other means to achieve." Wang Zhengzhi said.