Digital copyright protection and development of the annual keywords: metacosm, interconnection, antitrust

On December 28, 2021, the National Copyright Trade Base of Chinese University took stock of the hot topics of digital copyright protection and development in 2021 and summarized the top ten keywords of the year.

These keywords include the implementation of the new Copyright Law, the 2021 special action of Jianwang, the two 70%, meta-universe, NFT, erchuang short video, online education, anti-monopoly, interconnection, and personal information protection.

On June 1, 2021, the new Copyright Law was officially implemented, which improved the definition of works, and sports event programs, online game live broadcast screens, short videos, etc. can be included in the scope of works and are protected by the Copyright Law. The new law also increases penalties for infringement, stipulating that the minimum amount of statutory damages is 500 yuan, and the maximum limit is increased to 5 million yuan.

According to the publisher, the new Copyright Law is undoubtedly one of the keywords that have the greatest impact on the protection and development of digital copyright. The implementation of the new law will be more adapted to the development of new technologies, new models and new formats, and further promote the healthy and rapid development of the digital copyright industry.

Metacosmity is also one of the hottest concepts this year, and technology companies such as Facebook and Microsoft are currently laying out this track. What impact will the metacosm have on digital copyright?

the National Copyright Trade Base of Chinese Min University believes that the main application scenarios of the current metacosm are in the online game industry, and in the future, with the development of artificial intelligence creation and other technologies, it can be extended to social networking, performance, artwork, education, cultural tourism and other fields, thereby reshaping the industrial ecology of digital copyright. In addition, metaversity will change the way content is created and licensed, bringing new challenges to copyright protection and licensing.

Like the metacosm, NFTs are also a new outlet in the market where giants are scrambling to lay out. The full name of NFT is Non-Fungible Token, an NFT based on blockchain technology that can mark a unique "IDENTITY card" for goods. In March, artist Beeple's work "Every Day: The First 5,000 Days" was sold at Christie's in NFT form for more than $69 million, shocking the art world. Previously, Twitter's CEO auctioned a tweet he posted in 2006 through the NFT, which ended up selling for $2.9 million.

In the view of the National Copyright Trade Base of Chinese Min University, strengthening the protection of digital copyright through NFTs and releasing the value of digital copyright is expected to become a mainstream trend. However, with the further application of NFTs in the field of digital copyright, some issues have also been exposed – such as whether the rights of authors are exhausted after the sale of NFTs, and the application of the NFT-related "notice - necessary measures" rule, which is worth paying attention to. That is to say, the application details of NFTs in the digital copyright industry still need to be improved.

Nandu reporter noted that anti-monopoly and interconnection were also selected as the top ten keywords of the year. 2021 is a year of comprehensive and in-depth promotion of China's anti-monopoly, specific to the digital copyright industry, there are two eye-catching measures, namely, the merger of Douyu and Huya was stopped, and the exclusive music copyright of Tencent Network was ordered to be lifted. The publisher believes that in the context of national anti-monopoly, non-exclusive copyright has become the norm, which will return the price of copyright to rationality and is conducive to maintaining the orderly development of the copyright market.

In terms of connectivity, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology launched a six-month special rectification action for the Internet industry in July 2021 to crack down on incompatible behaviors such as blocking URL links. The relevant person in charge of the National Copyright Trade Base of Chinese Min University told Nandu Reporter that the promotion of interconnection between various platforms will be conducive to the cross-platform dissemination of works and thus promote the development of the digital copyright industry, but in turn, this also puts forward new requirements for cross-platform protection of copyright.

Written by: Nandu reporter Li Ling