The revised Copyright Law, which came into effect in June 2021, has brought stronger copyright protection to the online game industry.
Recently, the Guangzhou Internet Court ruled on a case of online game copyright infringement and unfair competition dispute, and found that the "Gold Coin Monopoly" game operated by Shanghai Yishi Information Technology Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yishi") is an original intellectual achievement. This is the first case in which a business simulation game is determined to constitute an audiovisual work and is protected as a whole.
The court ruled in the first instance that Xiamen Linbei Interactive Entertainment Technology Co., Ltd. and Fuzhou Dongyou Network Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the "Defendants") immediately ceased to infringe on the WeChat Mini Program channel to infringe on the game adaptation and information network dissemination rights of "Gold Coin Monopoly", and jointly and severally compensated for world economic losses and reasonable expenses of 10 million yuan.
"Rich Man of Friends" copied "Gold Coin Monopoly" in a large area
"Gold Coin Monopoly" is a realistic multiplayer online simulation business mobile game launched by Yi World. The player simulation starts with a small grassroots of the city, from operating mobile phone film stalls and fruit stalls to operating hotels and airlines; recruiting talents, participating in business negotiations, financial wars, and finally becoming a world-class business legend and building their own business empire.
After the full network is launched, the unique gameplay and interaction design of "Gold Coin Monopoly" are deeply loved by users. However, soon, Yishi found that the "Mobile Rich Man" operated on WeChat Mini Programs and other channels was suspected of plagiarizing the game system, core game elements, and interactions between systems of "Gold Coin Monopoly" as a whole, seriously infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of Yi World.
After further detailed comparison of the two games, Yi World found that "Rich Man" was the same or highly similar to "Gold Coin Monopoly" in terms of game type and theme, the overall framework of the game, the interaction relationship of various systems in the game, the main game mission, the specific system of the game, the text expression, the UI design, etc., and even in some game system settings, there were still "errors" that copied the traces of "Gold Coin Monopoly".
(Comparison of the games of "Gold Coin Monopoly" and "Rich Man of Motion" )
The court ordered The Rich Man to cease operations
After trial, the court held that as an online multiplayer simulation business game, "Gold Coin Monopoly" as a whole is obviously different from the previous game and has originality.
In terms of the framework of the storyline, the promotion rhythm, as well as the overall structure of the gameplay rules, the order and presentation rhythm of the main line of tasks, the scene conversion, the interface content, the number of levels, the number of props required for upgrading, the art, text, UI elements, etc. are similar to "Gold Coin Monopoly", whether from the macro structure or the micro detail setting, "The Rich Man" and "Gold Coin Monopoly" constitute substantial similarities.
The Court held that the similarities between the two went far beyond the scope of independent creation of "coincidences" or reasonable references. Therefore, the defendant's act of developing and operating the game "Rich Man of Friends" without authorization and operating and disseminating it on the Internet infringed the adaptation right of "Gold Coin Monopoly" and the right of information network dissemination.
At the same time, the court also considered that the scope of infringement of the "Moving Friends Rich Man" game runs through the entire game, and it is difficult to achieve the effect of stopping the infringement by simply deleting some of the content and other rectification methods, according to this, the court ordered the defendant to stop operating "The Movers Rich Man" and also take appropriate measures to protect the interests of game users.
Joint and several compensation of 10 million yuan
The court held that the defendant copied and adapted "Gold Coin Monopoly" on a large scale, and still did not correct it after complaining or even suing yi world, and the infringement fault was relatively large. Considering the time of infringement of "The Rich Man", the scale of plagiarism and adaptation, and the subjective fault of the defendant, the court ordered the defendant to jointly and severally compensate for the loss of the world economy and reasonable expenses of 10 million yuan.
As a pioneer in the field of simulated business, Yi World has issued a number of products such as "Gold Coin Monopoly", "Syntao Master", "I am a big owner" and many other products that are deeply loved by users. In this case, the Guangzhou Internet Court affirmed the originality of the "Gold Coin Monopoly" game as a whole with audio-visual works, and the severe punishment and crackdown on the infringement of "Rich Man" once again protected the legitimate rights and interests of the world. Yi World said that it has greater determination and perseverance to continue to resolutely defend its rights against any infringement of the rights and interests of "Gold Coin Monopoly", set a benchmark for the industry to respect and protect original game products, and help eliminate the trend of online game plagiarism and piracy infringement.
Encouraging originality, protecting originality, and using products to serve users is the way for the benign development of the online game industry. Ingenuity in polishing products and transmitting positive value is not only a respect for users, but also the foundation of the vigorous development of the online game industry. Yishi will continue to cultivate and innovate to simulate the development and operation of online games in the commodity category to create more products that benefit society and users.