Multi-party joint rights protection "watching a movie in a few minutes" involves infringement
At present, brushing short videos has become an important way for modern people to relax and entertain. In order to attract the attention of viewers, the "scissor hand" and "porter" who transformed into film and television works deconstructed and reorganized the popular film and television dramas into a few minutes long essence version, becoming a treasure platform for many "lazy cancer patients". As everyone knows, this practice is suspected of harming the legitimate rights and interests of copyright owners.
Recently, a number of film and television companies and video platforms jointly issued a joint proposal with 514 artists, calling on short video platforms to promote compliance management of copyright content and clean up unauthorized content. Previously, 15 film and television industry associations, 53 film and television companies such as Noonday Sunshine and Great Aim, and 5 video websites such as Tencent Video, iQiyi, Youku, and Mango TV have issued a joint statement. Yu Cike, director of the Copyright Administration Bureau of the Central Propaganda Department, said that it is necessary to continue to increase the crackdown on infringement in the field of short videos, and resolutely rectify the infringement of short video platforms and self-media and public account production operators who copy, perform and disseminate other people's films, television, music and other works without authorization. Whether short videos such as "watching a movie in a few minutes" should be banned has become the focus of public opinion.
Short videos are not an "extralegal place" protected by copyright, and infringement will be prosecuted. Film and television dramas, short video copyright must be standardized, short video creators must improve the awareness of rules, copyright awareness, those who only want to eat fast food, make quick money "scissor hands" and "porters", must sink their hearts, with solid creation and handy works to speak.
Of course, there are also many ambiguous areas that need to clarify responsibilities and boundaries. Whether the interpretation of short videos constitutes infringement must be judged from the legality of the source of the cited film fragments, the length of the film fragments used, and whether they have a negative impact on the film market. For example, some users deliberately cut, carry, and upload pirated film and television dramas, which is certainly not "fair use". However, many film and television commentaries themselves are based on the "second creation" of the original work, including analyzing the plot and characters, combing the story line, analyzing the background of the story, adding new copywriting, special effects, viewpoints, etc., reflecting the valuable labor of the creator and generating new copyrights. But how is "fair use" defined? How to judge the "secondary creation"? It is also necessary for relevant departments, legal experts and industry insiders to jointly discuss and give more refined standards.
In fact, there are many reasons why short videos of film and television commentary can grow rapidly. In such an impetuous "double speed era", film and television companies in order to seek profits, constantly inject water into the plot, up to seventy or eighty episodes of the plot so that users lose the patience and energy to watch. And "watching a movie in a few minutes" can quickly let the audience understand the plot, spoilers and spit in advance, and avoid spending unnecessary money and time costs.
Therefore, the standardized and orderly development of the film and television industry and the short video industry needs to clarify responsibilities and eliminate ambiguous areas, not only to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the rights holders of film and television works, but also not to erase the enthusiasm of secondary creation. (Liu Yingying)