World Intellectual Property Day 丨Change change, change of career... Last year, more than 60,000 online writers suffered from piracy

Per reporter: Du Wei Per editor: Liang Xiao

Today (April 26) is the 22nd World Intellectual Property Day. This year's Theme published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is "Intellectual Property and Youth: Innovating for the Future", which celebrates youth-led innovation and creativity.

"With IP, young people have access to some of the key tools they need to advance their ambitions." WIPO believes that Generation Z and Millennials are the creators of the future and that creative and innovative thinking backed by IP will help young people make a difference.

Image source: Screenshot of WIPO's official website

Intellectual property is inextricably linked to our lives. Whether it's writing a song, writing a novel, shooting a film or TV series or making a game, these original content have intellectual property rights. In the entire digital culture industry, online literature (hereinafter referred to as net literature) is the source of content for games, film and television, music and other creations. Young people have gradually become an important force in online text creation, and the 2021 annual report of reading group (hereinafter referred to as reading), the head company of the online text market, shows that among the 700,000 new writers added in 2021, the post-95 generation will account for up to 80%.

In terms of intellectual property protection, what problems and difficulties does the online text market face?

Last year, more than 10,000 online articles were cut off due to piracy

Nettext IP is hot in the entertainment market. The adaptations of popular film and television dramas and games such as "Qing Yu Nian" and "Douluo Continent" all come from online texts, and protecting the intellectual copyright of online texts is the key to maintaining the solid foundation of the digital culture industry.

"In recent years, with the vigorous rectification of online text piracy by the competent authorities, coupled with the continuous investment in rights protection and genuine construction of various online text platforms, we have felt that the copyright environment of online text has improved to a certain extent." The relevant person in charge of Reading Wen Legal Affairs replied to the Daily Economic News reporter in writing today that in recent years, Reading Has accumulated complaints about the removal of thousands of pirated apps, etc., and filed lawsuits for more than a thousand works.

Although the copyright governance of online texts has achieved certain results, it is still a long way from success. According to the White Paper on Copyright Protection of Online Literature in China 2021, in 2020, the scale of online literature piracy losses has reached 6.028 billion yuan. "Compared with industries such as film and television and games, online texts in the form of digital texts are more convenient to copy and transcribe, so they face a severe situation of piracy and infringement." The relevant person in charge of the above-mentioned reading legal affairs frankly said.

"We knock out tens of millions of pirated links every year, but they burn like weeds." The relevant person in charge of the legal affairs of reading literature believes that piracy encroaches on the online literature industry, and online writers bear the brunt of it.

According to the White Paper on copyright protection of Chinese online literature 2021, up to 85.4% of online writers suffered from piracy infringement, of which 42% suffered frequent piracy infringement. "Our incomplete statistics found that in 2021, 60,000 writers will be affected by piracy, and more than 10,000 works will be broken." The relevant person in charge of the legal affairs of Reading Literature said that writers are the first productive force of online text creation, and the flood of piracy has greatly affected the income of writers and hit their enthusiasm for creation, which "led some writers to break off their changes and choose other professions, which damaged the prosperity of the online literature market."

"A few years ago, the 'talking elbow' determined the release date of the new book half a month in advance, but before the main text of the novel was released, the pirate website registered the same title first, filled it with inferior content, and disguised it as the author's book to induce fans to read." The relevant person in charge of the legal affairs of Reading Literature shared with each reporter that writers who encountered serious piracy problems, and even some writers were provoked by pirate dealers, saying that piracy was to help writers better "publicize", as long as they were updated, they would "steal".

Technological developments reduce the cost of piracy

Online writers are deeply disturbed by piracy, and their painstaking works are difficult to protect.

"We monitored and saw that last year, there were more than 200,000 pirate sites in more than ten online articles, including "The Other Side of Deep Space", and the number of infringing links reached 1.6 million," the relevant person in charge of legal affairs told every reporter, "The Other Side of Deep Space" monitored nearly 130,000 infringement clues in 3 months. ”

This means that the number of infringements encountered by "The Other Side of Deep Space" exceeds 1400 per day.

Piracy not only discourages the enthusiasm of writers and weakens creativity, but also seriously affects the development of online platforms, and also infringes on the driving force of the digital cultural industry. "Piracy infringement will mainly lead to damage to the economic benefits of the platform, loss of users, increase in daily operating costs, etc., and destroy the foundation for the long-term benign development of the original content ecosystem." The relevant person in charge of the legal affairs of Reading Text said.

In the view of the relevant person in charge of the legal affairs of Reading, online texts have become an important source of content in the digital culture industry, and in the context of Chinese culture going out, they have gone to the sea to "circle fans" the world and become one of the four major cultural phenomena in the world. "However, under the erosion of piracy, the original content ecology of online texts has been destroyed, shaking the foundation of the development of the industry, and infringing on the driving force of the source of the digital cultural industry, which has adversely affected the participation of China's cultural industry in global competition."

Why are the works of the "great gods" frequently pirated and repeatedly banned? "It's because the cost of copyright infringement is low." The relevant person in charge of legal affairs pointed out that the governance of piracy in online texts still faces many challenges, and with the help of new technologies, the piracy industry chain is gradually hidden, to some extent, "technology has reduced the cost of piracy, and our cost of rights protection is very high." There are a large number of pirate platforms on the market, and it is difficult to find infringers, and even if you find them, you will encounter problems such as backdoor companies and overseas companies. In addition, the value of online texts has not been fully recognized, and after the work is infringed, the overall amount of fines is relatively low, and in most cases it is not enough to make up for the losses of the right holder."

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