Douyin denied infringing "Changjin Lake", and long and short video disputes arose again

Economic Observation Network reporter Ren Xiaoning

On the evening of February 9, Douyin officials issued a statement denying the infringement of "Chosin Lake". The statement said that the so-called infringing content is actually part of the cooperation between Bona Pictures, the producer of "Chosin Lake", and the official publicity cooperation with Douyin, and it does not have 30 minutes, only less than 6 minutes.

Douyin's statement mainly pointed to a report by CCTV on February 9. The report said that "Chosin Lake" was just launched on Aiyouteng on New Year's Day, that is, a large number of cuts appeared on the short video platform, some large sections of cut strips were as long as half an hour, and hundreds of thousands of plays were played.

According to the screenshot of the CCTV report, on the short video platform, there is a 1-hour and 34-minute "Chosin Lake" complete collection, and a 28-minute "Chosin Lake" video. In addition, there are short videos of "Chosin Lake" with different lengths of 1 minute, 6 minutes, 12 minutes, etc.

On February 10, the reporter searched on Douyin, unable to search for the complete collection of Chosin Lake, nor could he search for more than 10 minutes of short video content of Chosin Lake. However, there are still some short videos of the second creation "Chosin Lake" produced by millions of bloggers, and these short videos have the picture of the movie "Chosin Lake".

Zhao Hu, a partner at Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm and chief lawyer of the intellectual property department, told the Economic Observer Network that if only from a legal point of view, this matter is very simple, and all unauthorized short videos are infringement.

However, in reality, the attitude of the right holder to the second creation is also complicated. A film publicity official told reporters that he very much hoped that netizens could spontaneously remake the content of the promotional film, because it could expand its influence and drive the box office. There are also many directors and producers who tell Zhao Hu that they hope that netizens will produce widely, but the premise is that they are authorized first and can be selected, "Not just a random individual can create a second creation." ”

Douyin's response mentioned that the alleged infringement of the content of "Chosin Lake", with the authorization and confirmation of the film, Douyin assisted in contacting a number of Douyin authors to produce promotional videos with the topic of Changjin Lake, and one of them was exposed in the news. A short video practitioner told reporters that in general, the talent will not directly say in the video that he is advertising, nor will he say that he is helping the film party to do publicity.

Douyin's response this time also refers to the long video platform, and in the response, it is directly said that a long video platform conveys information through the media that there is a 30-minute cut of the movie "Changjin Lake" on Douyin. Since last year's endless long and short video war of words and lawsuits, the long and short video dispute in 2022 has begun again.

Each has its own mind

"It doesn't hurt them, but it's fatal to us." A person from a long video company told reporters that there are not many short videos in the short video platform, accounting for less than 5%, but these infringing content is a fatal blow to long videos.

The model of long videos is to make or buy copyright, and the model of short videos is user upload, which fundamentally determines the difference in the two sides' spending on content. Especially for some popular film and television dramas, the production cost of long video platforms is often hundreds of millions of yuan, and after being edited and uploaded to short videos by users, short video platforms can obtain these contents for free.

I used my content, I divided, and I tried to divert my users. The above-mentioned long video company told reporters that according to the internal statistics of Aiyou Tengmang, there are more than 2,000 key works that they have been infringed by short videos, all of which are S+ or S-class works, and the current hot works.

At present, among the mainland network audiovisual users, the user usage rate of short videos is the highest, and it has long exceeded that of long videos. In terms of revenue, ByteDance's revenue in 2020 was 236.6 billion yuan, Kuaishou's revenue was 58.78 billion yuan, and the long-form video leader iQiyi was only 29.7 billion yuan.

The infringing content of the short video "Changjin Lake" mentioned in the CCTV report cannot be searched on the short video platform at present. A person from a short video company told reporters that the current common rule of short video platforms is to delete after receiving the infringement notice, which they have been doing very well and will immediately delete the infringing content.

But people at long-form video companies don't approve of this approach. "Deleting the infringing content after notification is like playing a gopher, it can't be finished at all, and the cat and mouse can never be caught." They look anxious, but they have to fight, for the short video platform, they hope to be able to do pre-control.

The above-mentioned short video company told reporters that it is difficult to control copyright at the source, "There is so much content on the platform, it is impossible to confirm whether it is infringing in advance before each screen is broadcast, which is too complicated and too difficult." ”

Even copyright holders do not have a uniform mind about short video infringement. Platform-based copyright owners such as Aiyouteng have formed a consensus to resolutely crack down on short video infringement. However, some film publicity personnel told reporters that Douyin has become the most important position of publicity, and this platform cannot be abandoned, and they hope that users will create content independently to help publicize it. Some veteran TV series such as "Wulin Waichuan", "Liang Sword", "Zhen Huan Biography" and other dramas have achieved secondary life continuation through various secondary creations on short video platforms. Some directors and producers also told Zhao Hu that they are not opposed to being created by the second creation, and at present, they hope to carry out the second creation under the premise of authorization.

"It is very simple to determine whether the short video content is infringing, but infringement does not mean that it will be protected. Some rights holders are willing to defend their rights, and some rights holders are unwilling to defend their rights, so it is very complicated. Zhao Hu told reporters.

Growing

The contradiction that emerged in "Chosin Lake" is only a microcosm of a contradiction between the long and short video platforms last year and so far.

Since 2021, long and short video platforms have fought several rounds of war. In April last year, Aiyouteng and 500 artists jointly signed the "Proposal" to oppose the arbitrary editing, cutting, handling and dissemination of film and television works without the authorization of the right holder. In May last year, Aiyouteng issued a statement condemning the theft of content related to the "Friends Reunion Special" on Station B. At the "China Online Audiovisual Conference" held on June 3 last year, Sun Zhonghuai, vice president of Tencent, Gong Yu, CEO of iQiyi, and Fan Luyuan, president of Youku, collectively challenged each other, expressing their dissatisfaction with the phenomenon of content infringement on short video platforms in their respective speeches.

After that, the war of words evolved into a lawsuit war.

In June last year, Tencent Video sued Douyin for infringement of Douluo Continent for 100 million yuan, and Douyin subsequently sued Tencent Video for infringement of "Bright Sword". In August last year, Tencent Video sued Douyin for infringement of the "Anti-Gang Crime Operation". In November last year, the Beijing Internet Court rendered a first-instance judgment in the case of Youku v. Kuaishou short video infringement of "Ice Sugar Stewed Sydney", and Youku won the lawsuit and received 460,000 yuan in damages.

The Shanghai Pudong Court revealed that after 2020, dispute cases involving short videos will double every year. In 2020, the number of new short video infringement dispute cases in China hit a new high, an increase of 258.1% year-on-year, reaching 222. Enterprise investigation statistics show that in the relevant judgment documents of the mainland's "short video", the cause of action is "dispute over the infringement of the right of dissemination of the information network of works", accounting for 15.1%, ranking first among all kinds of causes of action.

In December last year, the China Online Audiovisual Program Service Association issued the "Detailed Rules for the Standard Review of Online Short Video Content (2021)", which clearly stipulates that short video programs may not "cut and adapt all kinds of audio-visual programs and clips such as movies, TV series, and online film and television dramas without authorization".

Since last year, with the increase in short video infringement cases, the amount of claims has gradually increased. Previously, iQiyi claimed 30 million yuan from today's headlines because of "Yanxi Raiders", and in August last year, Tencent Video raised the claim amount to 100 million yuan, and claimed 100 million yuan from Douyin because of "Sweeping Black Storm". In December last year, Tencent further increased the amount of "Douluo Continent" claims, claiming 800 million yuan from Douyin, setting a new high for Chinese film and television claims.

Still to be resolved

After frequent conflicts between long and short videos, until now, the two sides have not reached a unified opinion.

The above-mentioned long video company told reporters that they have always hoped to communicate well with short video companies. They do not want to fight a lawsuit because the complexity of short video infringement cases is much higher than other forms of infringement. With only one notarization, the court hopes that each short video will play notarization uninterruptedly for one second, in which case the cost of evidence collection will rise and the right holder will bear the hidden cost.

After spending manpower, material and financial resources, the court's compensation for short video infringement is generally tens of thousands of yuan, but the production of the series requires tens of millions of costs, and the current infringement judgment is difficult to make up for the loss.

And the infringed short videos are generally released at the hottest time of the series, "We ask these platforms to deal with it every time, and it deals with the offline I Have already broadcast this heat." ”

The short video platform also has its own grievances, the "Changjin Lake" infringement incident, Douyin said, after finding out, it was found that it was the filmmakers who invited the master to make it, not the infringing content. Previously, the "Sweeping Black Storm" dispute, Douyin also said that it was Douyin's TV series publicity and cooperation at the request of the co-producer of "Sweeping Black Storm".

Douyin said in the statement that "two innovations" are new things that should be encouraged and supported. Filmmakers, users, and creators all have needs, and they should not beat the user's creation to death under the guise of maintaining copyright.

The above-mentioned long video company told reporters that they are not opposed to netizens Erchuang, and even like some good erchuang products, and are also creating space for Erchuang. The reporter learned that at present, Aiyou Tengmang has reached a consensus and is trying to establish new rules, from the previous one second is not allowed, to the establishment of a 90-second rule, that is, each episode opens 90 seconds of content, allowing users to create.

"We hope to achieve a win-win situation, not to blame short video platforms and so on every day, our real purpose is not so."

Now, long videos have basically formed a unified opinion, but between short video platforms, opinions are not unified. The person told reporters that in the process of communicating with short video companies, some short video platforms are very cooperative, have a positive attitude, and are willing to fight infringement together, and there are also short video platforms that do not accept their requirements.

The long video person believes that the solution of short video infringing content ultimately requires communication between the platform and the platform, "it is difficult for ordinary users to successfully find the right holder, and the right holder cannot have the energy to authorize each user one by one, and it is impossible to dock in this way." The future must be platform-to-platform. ”