Fake celebrity quotes Zhang Guan and Li Dai are annoying
Experts call for strengthening the platform's duty of care to protect the legitimate rights and interests of rights holders
□ Our reporter Zhang Wei
□ Liu Xin, a trainee reporter of this newspaper
"I have seen many works under my name on the Internet, but they are not actually written by me." Recently, Mo Yan, a contemporary Chinese writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, published an article titled "Mo Yan" on his personal account. : These works are really not written by me” article.
He mentioned in the article that some of the most popular poems on the Internet, including "Wine and Color Fu", "How Good If You Know Me", and "Mo Yanshuo", were not written by him.
What makes people laugh and cry is that he also received more than 400 yuan of manuscript fees from the publishing house after "If You Know Me, How Good" was selected as a university textbook.
Mo Yan is not the first celebrity to be approached by fake famous words. In recent years, a large number of celebrities such as Lu Xun, Yang Jiang, Zhang Ailing, and Bai Yansong have frequently been "hit".
Recently, a number of experts pointed out in an interview with a reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" that "pseudo-celebrity famous quotes" are popular and their harm cannot be underestimated. A multi-pronged approach should be taken to further improve the legal system, raise public legal awareness, and strengthen the platform's duty of care. Protect the legitimate rights and interests of rights holders, and avoid the phenomenon of "pseudo famous quotes".
False sayings abound
disrupt the order of network communication
Among the "pseudo-celebrity famous quotes" on the Internet, Mr. Lu Xun was "signed" in particular, and a series of mocking emojis were also derived from this.
"95% of famous famous quotes on the Internet are nonsense, including this one - Lu Xun" "If you are not sure who said a famous quote, say it was Lu Xun"... In 2019, the "What Lu Xun said" retrieval system On the line, many people went to verify and shouted: "It turns out that I have been deceived for so many years."
In 2013, when Mr. Yang Jiang was about to celebrate his 102nd birthday, "Yang Jiang's Centenary Testimonials" was widely circulated on the Internet, and many people believed it for a while. People's Literature Publishing House, which owns the copyright of Yang Jiang's works, asked Yang Jiang himself. Later, the rumor was refuted on the official Weibo.
In 2016, after the death of Mr. Yang Jiang, the same quotation became popular again, but this time it was a handwritten version.
The People's Literature Publishing House immediately clarified that neither the text nor the handwriting came from Yang Jiang.
Senior media person Bai Yansong once said that there are many remarks and even quotations signed by "Bai Yansong" circulating on the Internet, most of which are not his own.
On the cover of his book "Bai Shuo", there is this passage: "I don't have Weibo, and I don't use WeChat. I can only be sure that all the words in this book are from me."
In fact, this is not the first time Mo Yan has cracked down on fakes.
Previously, he had repeatedly posted clarifications on Weibo regarding some impostor works.
But what makes people helpless is that these false golden sentences and false quotations are still circulating in a certain range.
Today, with calls for greater protection of intellectual property rights, why are so many people so "generous" that they put others' names on their works?
In this regard, Feng Xiaoqing, a professor and doctoral tutor of China University of Political Science and Law, and vice-chairman of the China Intellectual Property Law Research Association, analyzed that: In essence, this phenomenon is that some people want to jeopardize the popularity of celebrities.
It is difficult for ordinary people to express their opinions and articles to attract so much attention, so some people imitate the style or technique of famous works, and use the fake to make it real, and then gain attention, traffic, economic benefits, etc.
He believes that this kind of behavior violates the legislative purpose of copyright law and destroys the cultural order.
Professor Huang Yuye, dean of the School of Intellectual Property at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, told reporters that people who were falsely signed were often celebrities, or people with influence in a certain field.
Nowadays, many people are superstitious about celebrities. When they see a sentence on the Internet that someone said, they may repost it casually to spread the truth.
Further, the existence of "pseudo-famous words" also endangers the order of online communication.
Crackdown on counterfeiting cannot rely solely on denunciation
Multiple entities should be held responsible
"Pseudo celebrity quotes" often cause great trouble for celebrities themselves.
Mo Yan said: "Famous sayings and aphorisms such as "I am only responsible for two kinds of people - my life and my life" are not made by me, but some people criticize my three views based on this, and I can only laugh and laugh. Sigh."
As the saying goes, "make a rumor and break a leg", so is the crackdown on "pseudo famous quotes".
For these "pseudo-celebrity famous quotes" that pop up on the Internet from time to time, in addition to public criticism, should impostors, online platforms, publishing houses and other subjects bear legal responsibility for this?
Attorney Wang Yaxi, a partner of Beijing Yuanhe Law Firm, believes that making up "famous quotes" or making up works using the names of famous masters is an act of impersonation and violates the rights of the impostor.
The Civil Code stipulates that no organization or individual may infringe on the right to name of others by counterfeiting or other means; pseudonyms, stage names, net names, translated names, font sizes, names and abbreviations of names, etc., which have a certain social reputation and are used by others enough to cause public confusion, Refer to the relevant provisions on the protection of the right to name.
Therefore, the unauthorized use of other people's names to publish speeches or works may infringe the name rights of the impostor.
Huang Yuye told reporters that publishing and disseminating works under the guise of others is usually driven by interests.
This kind of behavior goes against the true will of the person being signed. In terms of copyright law, it infringes on his right of authorship and may also cause damage to his reputation.
For example, someone accuses celebrities based on "pseudo famous sayings". If the content of "pseudo famous sayings" violates laws and disciplines, the impact on celebrities will be greater, and it may also constitute a right of reputation infringement. It is necessary to stop the infringement, restore the impact, and compensate for losses.
"The act of publishing works under the name of others on the Internet, as well as the act of making and disseminating false quotations in reality, are all acts of producing and selling works that counterfeit the signature of others, which violates the provisions of the Copyright Law, and should bear corresponding civil liability according to the circumstances. , those who constitute a crime must also bear criminal responsibility." Huang Yuye said.
As for whether the online platform should be held responsible, Feng Xiaoqing said that according to the provisions of my country's Civil Code and the Regulations on the Protection of the Right of Information Network Communication, the online platform applies the "notice-deletion" rule.
If a network user uses the network service platform to commit infringement, the right holder has the right to notify the network service provider to take necessary measures such as deletion, blocking, and disconnection.
If necessary measures are not taken in time, the network user shall be jointly and severally liable for the enlarged part of the damage.
However, if it is an obvious infringement, the "red flag standard" should also be applied.
Feng Xiaoqing explained that the so-called "red flag standard" means that when the network service provider knows the facts and circumstances of the infringement committed by others, but adopts the "ostrich policy" and pretends not to know, it can also be determined that it at least "should have known" the infringement. exist.
Huang Yuye said that it is difficult for online platforms to check the authenticity of massive information and whether the author has authorization one by one, so there is a "notice-deletion" rule to provide a "safe haven" without the platform's knowledge.
But for the publishing house, it has always been required to fulfill strict censorship obligations.
Regarding the issue of whether the publishing house should bear legal responsibility when the books published by the publishing house involve counterfeiting the works of others, Feng Xiaoqing said: "Usually the author and the publishing house have a legal licensing relationship, and there is a contract between the two. , which clearly stipulates that the author must ensure that he is the right holder of the work provided to the publishing house; if the publication of the work infringes the copyright or other civil rights of others, the author shall bear all legal responsibilities. But even so, the publishing house shall still bear reasonable Pay attention, otherwise you will still have to bear legal responsibility.”
Rights holders can sue for rights
The platform should exercise its duty of care
In reality, some of the "signed" authors have died, which also makes the fabricators unscrupulous.
Feng Xiaoqing mentioned that the protection of personality rights is permanent, and heirs cannot inherit personality rights, but they can maintain them.
The Implementing Regulations of the Copyright Law clearly stipulate that after the death of an author, the authorship, modification rights and the right to protect the integrity of the work in the copyright shall be protected by the author's heirs or bequests.
Where the copyright is not inherited or bequeathed, its authorship, modification and protection of the integrity of the work shall be protected by the copyright administrative department.
The Civil Code stipulates that if the deceased's name, portrait, reputation, honor, privacy, remains, etc. are violated, his spouse, children, and parents have the right to request the perpetrator to bear civil liability according to law; Close relatives have the right to request the perpetrator to bear civil liability in accordance with the law.
Therefore, the close relatives of the deceased celebrity have the right to file a lawsuit in the court, requiring the impostor to bear civil liability; if the public interest is involved, the procuratorial organ can also file a civil public interest lawsuit.
So, how to effectively prevent the problem of "pseudo famous quotes" from happening?
Feng Xiaoqing suggested multiple co-governance and a multi-pronged approach to avoid the phenomenon of "pseudo famous quotes".
At the level of the legal system, improve judicial interpretation and increase operability.
From the perspective of the administrative department, it is possible to investigate and deal with the corresponding behavior according to the law, publicize typical cases with greater impact, especially strengthen the protection of rights and interests such as the right of celebrity signature, and carry out special actions such as copyright enforcement.
For the rights holder, this phenomenon cannot be allowed to happen, and the evidence should be fixed in time and the infringement act will be prosecuted.
Huang Yuye believes that the current legislation is relatively comprehensive. To prevent the occurrence of such infringements in the future, we need to start from two aspects. On the one hand, the legal rights of the rights holders must be protected in judicial practice. When the court sues for rights protection, its reasonable demands should be supported.
On the other hand, it is necessary to increase publicity efforts, through the publicity of laws and regulations and the results of judicial trials, to improve the public's legal awareness, and to make it conscious to respect others' legitimate rights and interests such as name rights and copyrights.
In addition, the platform must also fulfill a higher duty of care, and take necessary measures such as deletion, blocking, and disconnection of links in a timely manner after receiving the notice from the rights holder.
For repeated infringements, it is necessary to actively adopt technical filtering measures to prevent the same infringements from happening again.
"The core of the authorship right is to establish the 'traceability' between the work and the author. The "What Lu Xun said" retrieval system established by the Lu Xun Museum can be regarded as a way to protect the authorship right and curb impostors." Wang Yaxi said that it is necessary to strengthen The responsibility boundaries of publishers and platforms, etc., strengthen their awareness of compliance, conduct clean inspections of published and published works, and remove them from the shelves in time if infringement is found to avoid the occurrence or expansion of damage.