The answer to the copyright question of short video needs to be jointly searched by many parties

News Background:

On December 15, the China Online Audiovisual Program Service Association issued the Detailed Rules for the Standard Review of Online Short Video Content, which prohibits short videos from "cutting and adapting all kinds of audiovisual programs and clips such as movies, TV series, and online film and television dramas without authorization", which has aroused public concern about the copyright issue of short videos.

China Economic Network Data Chart Deng Hao/Photo

How to avoid infringement in short video works

The copyright issue of short video Erchuang has long entered the field of vision of all parties. According to the 2021 China Short Video Protection White Paper, the 12426 Copyright Monitoring Center monitored a total of 3 million infringing accounts from 2019 to May this year, and deleted 14.78 million second-hand infringing short videos. Some accounts directly cut film and television works into short videos and send them to the Internet to attract traffic, which is undoubtedly an illegal act of copyright infringement. On April 9 this year, more than 70 film and television media units jointly spoke out to resist the unauthorized "editing, cutting, handling, and dissemination" of short videos. Subsequently, on the 26th of the same month, more than 70 units jointly issued a proposal to boycott "cutting, handling, speed watching and compilation", and the spearhead pointed at "X minutes to watch movies". The copyright issue of short video dichuang may need a detailed rule as a guide, but this rule should be more detailed, secure and realistic.

In recent years, the Internet video industry has developed rapidly. Among them, short videos have quickly spawned and occupied the market with their convenient and fast, popular and other characteristics, and have become an emerging force in the Internet traffic economy. Along with this, issues related to intellectual property rights, especially copyright, have occurred from time to time, especially the copyright entanglement between long videos and short videos such as film and television dramas, which has aroused the attention of all parties. In the short video industry in the Internet content industry, in order to improve the supply efficiency and monetization ability, it is difficult to meet the requirements of the audience by relying on original short videos alone, and in this case, it is inevitable to use the content of long videos such as movies, TV series, and online game works. Cutting, handling, and editing existing film and television dramas or online game works, only in the case of constituting fair use, the short video works can naturally obtain legal identity, otherwise, the cutting, handling, and editing acts are more serious copyright infringement acts. The main manifestation of the copyright dispute between long and short videos in the video industry is this kind of unauthorized cutting, handling and editing behavior. Any industry has its operating rules and legal and regulatory requirements. The use of long video works in short videos cannot be a simplistic "take-ism", and should comply with due industry rules and established legal rules.

Short video platforms cannot evade obligations

The crux of the matter is that China's Copyright Law leaves room for "fair use" here: in order to introduce and comment on a certain work or explain a certain issue, the appropriate quotation of another person's published work in the work may be paid without the permission of the copyright owner, but the name of the author or the name of the work should be indicated, and the normal use of the work must not be affected, and the legitimate rights and interests of the copyright owner must be reasonably damaged. As to how much of the quotation is "appropriate", whether it affects "normal use", and what is "unreasonable" damage, it is left to the court for specific analysis. Copyright is not well protected, which will dampen the author's enthusiasm for creation and is not conducive to cultural development; however, once this red line is set too high and standardized too strictly, it may lead to restrictions on the dissemination of works, which is not conducive to the dissemination and exchange of the achievements of civilization, and hinders cultural prosperity and social progress. Therefore, where this red line is drawn and how to implement it is a very test of the wisdom of the ruler. In this regard, the promotion of Creative Commons licensing agreements in some countries and the questioning of which licenses are open to authors is instructive.

In order to truly improve the efficiency of the industry, we can take advantage of the resource collection of the Internet platform and consider fundamentally opening up the copyright authorization mechanism between the platforms in the form of cooperation between platforms. Under the current situation that the copyright cooperation mechanism for long and short videos is still not perfect, short video platforms should proceed from the established rules of the Copyright Law and perform their video copyright protection obligations. Short video platforms are the distribution centers for uploading and disseminating video content, playing the role of content service providers, and their copyright care obligations are relatively high. In the case where a short video platform provides a video work of others in its own name, if it constitutes illegal dissemination without the permission of the right holder, the platform shall bear the adverse consequences of direct infringement. In the case where the short video platform facilitates or assists the user to upload and disseminate other people's video works, the platform may also bear the liability for indirect infringement. At present, the short video platform has not yet fully established a business model and work dissemination rules that meet the requirements of the Copyright Law, and even some platforms try to evade their due copyright protection obligations by means of gray areas or passing on responsibilities, which is not advisable. Short video platforms, as content delivery platforms, do not have a legal basis for applying the "principle of technological neutrality" and the "safe haven rule".

Long and short video copyright should be a win-win cooperation

From the perspective of copyright governance of short video platforms, first of all, the legal application of existing copyright rules should be further clarified, and attention should be paid to clarifying the applicable conditions of copyright infringement liability and exemption rules from the formulation of rules and the interpretation of rules. Second, it is necessary to pay attention to the accuracy and uniformity of judicial adjudication, and establish standards for certainty of judicial discretion through judicial discretion to protect original short videos, protect the copyright of long videos, and pursue liability for short video infringement. Third, for the continuous and long-term infringement of copyright by some short video platforms, the responsibility for copyright administrative penalties should be investigated, and a good ecology of the short video industry and the copyright industry should be created. Finally, it is necessary to establish an industry self-discipline mechanism to encourage and promote the short video industry to take the initiative to establish filtering measures for copyright protection and industry copyright norms, so as to achieve the long-term and healthy development of the video industry. To some extent, the essence of the copyright dispute between long and short videos is the struggle for interests. As a new video industry, short video, and long videos such as movies and TV series should be guided into a win-win healthy competition, rather than becoming a zero-sum game in mutual volume.

"Content handling" short video is a new business model with the help of digital technology, which meets the actual needs of some consumers, and is also within the constraints of copyright, only by respecting copyright, innovating copyright cooperation models, and forming benign interaction and cooperation can we achieve sustainable and healthy development. It is necessary to form an atmosphere of jointly safeguarding intellectual property rights, and to balance the interests of short video creators, audiovisual works rights holders, long video platforms, short video platforms and the public. In the short term, the operation of the new mechanism may increase the operating costs of short videos, and will also eliminate a number of short video accounts; in the long run, it is conducive to the continuous supply of short video operators for secondary creation of film and television works, while promoting the dissemination of film and television dramas, producing more high-quality short video products, thereby optimizing the video communication value chain and forming a good ecology of win-win cooperation.

(The above comprehensive economic daily, southern daily, Guangzhou daily)

In a nutshell:

@North Lane de First Eye: Aren't many people watching the edited video before watching the TV series?

@Snow Dandelion: You may not believe it when you say it, some short video bloggers cut much better than the positive film, and often trick me into watching bad dramas.

@Schrödinger's cat 123: Now many short videos use editing film and television works to advertise to make money, which has actually infringed on the interests of the original work.

@Meow Law: In the case of clear provisions of the Copyright Law, the industry association makes such a provision, which is more like an act of enclosure protection.

@ Sixth Brother of the Military Department: There is nothing wrong with protecting film and television copyrights, but it is also necessary to leave room for secondary creation.

China Economic Network Editor's Afterword:

It should be admitted that the infinite creativity and endless communication power displayed by the massive short video products not only create a vast blue ocean of traffic economy, but also make the life of our era more exciting. At the same time, the copyright disputes that exist in the short video industry must also be faced squarely. If we expect an association to issue a ban with no legal effect, it can completely curb the infringement of short videos, which is obviously unrealistic. The answer to the short video copyright problem also needs to be jointly searched by many parties, including film and television copyright parties, short video producers, and long and short video platforms. Only by innovating the copyright cooperation mechanism and achieving a long-term win-win situation on the track of the rule of law can the situation of benign interaction between long and short videos gradually take shape, and the high-quality development of the industry can be steady.