Sun Honglei may not have expected that one day "Brother Qiang" ate melons and actually ate himself.
On September 25, the Chengdu Internet Court heard a dispute over the sound rights of film and television dramas: a game software called "Watermelon Stallholders vs. Melon Buyers" used the lines and sounds of the film and television drama "Conquest" in which actor Sun Honglei participated, and the game developers and suppliers Chengdu SleepShenfei Technology Co., Ltd. and Beijing SleepShenfei Technology Co., Ltd. were sued by Sun Honglei to the court.
On the same day, at the scene of the trial, did the relevant provisions of the Civil Code on the right to voice apply to the behavior claimed by Sun Honglei in this case? On issues such as whether the audio involved in the case was identifiable, both the plaintiff and the defendant expressed their representations, and the court finally decided to announce the judgment on another day.
Screenshot of the TV series "Conquest"
In Tianfu 5th Street, "Liu Huaqiang" called people to chop melons?
Actor Sun Honglei sued the small game company for infringing on sound rights
"Dude, how much is this melon a pound?" "Two bucks a pound." "Is this melon ripe?" Who remembers this "buy melon" bridge in the TV series "Conquest"? Do you still remember the character Liu Huaqiang played by Sun Honglei in the play?
On related platforms, the introduction of "Watermelon Stallholder vs. Melon Buyer" is a casual puzzle type game. In the game, the player will become a watermelon stall owner with the goal of selling all the watermelons, however, there are always many people on the street who are in trouble with the player, and the player needs to protect his watermelon stall and fight the street bandits to the end.
Screenshot of the interface of the mini-game "Watermelon Stallholder vs. Melon Buyer"
Among them, the image of a man wearing black clothes and black pants, with an inch and holding a watermelon knife is quite typical. The man in black is set up in the game as a "gangster", saying "Are you ripe this melon?" "Wait until I call someone to cut your melon stall" and other lines.
Although the game is placed with street signs such as "Tianfu 5th Street", careful players will find that this scene is similar to the bridge in a TV series. "Isn't this Brother Qiang?" Some players remind that the shape and lines of the man in black in the game look similar to Liu Huaqiang in the "Conquest" TV series.
Screenshot of the interface of the mini-game "Watermelon Stallholder vs. Melon Buyer"
The player noticed, and actor Sun Honglei also noticed.
"Brother Qiang" was angry. On September 25, Chengdu SleepShenfei Technology Co., Ltd. and Beijing SleepShenfei Technology Co., Ltd. were sued by Sun Honglei to the court because the "Watermelon Stallholder vs. Melon Buyer" game software used the lines and sounds in the classic bridge of the film and television drama "Conquest" in which actor Sun Honglei participated.
The plaintant, Sun Honglei, argued that Chengdu SleepShenfei Technology Co., Ltd. and Beijing SleepShenfei Technology Co., Ltd. developed and designed the game for profit-making purposes without their authorization, which objectively constituted an infringement of their sound rights and interests. In addition, the personality elements of the game are portrayed as bad guys fighting and picking trouble in society, and their personal dignity is not respected, which objectively constitutes a violation of their general personality rights.
Based on the above reasons, the plaintiff Sun Honglei requested that Chengdu SleepShenfei Technology Co., Ltd. and Beijing SleepShenfei Technology Co., Ltd. publicly apologize and compensate 450,000 yuan for economic losses and 50,000 yuan for emotional damages.
Defendant's opinion:
The plaintiff argued that the provisions of the Civil Code on the right to voice and general personality rights could not be applied
Regarding the conduct claimed by Sun Honglei in this case, can the provisions on the right to sound apply? On the issue of whether the audio involved in the case was identifiable, the defendants Chengdu SleepShenfei Technology Co., Ltd. and Beijing SleepShenfei Technology Co., Ltd. entrusted litigation agents to believe that the acts claimed by Sun Honglei in this case could not be applied to the provisions of the Civil Code on sound rights and general personality rights, and the audio involved in the case was not identifiable.
The lawyer pointed out that according to the relevant provisions of the Civil Code, sound rights should "refer to" the provisions on the protection of portrait rights, but sound and portrait cannot be completely equated, and portraits have visual characteristics and obvious identification features, as well as static recognition properties, which can be separated from the performance activities themselves. The sound itself does not have the possibility of static, and its dynamic nature itself determines that it cannot be separated from the performance activity.
The entrusted litigation agent also gave an example: in the TV series "Luding Ji" and "The Legend of Zhen Huan", the voices of the film and television characters Wei Xiaobao and Zhen Huan are almost no different from the voices of the actors themselves, but the voices used in the actual broadcast TV series are all from the voice of the voice actors, based on the current situation of the film and television industry, the audience will not directly correspond to the actor and the voice of the character, and will not identify Sun Honglei through the audio involved in the case. What's more, Sun Honglei did not provide any evidence to prove that the audio involved originated from himself and also claimed the voice of others in this case, "Even if some old viewers identified the corresponding plot source through the lines corresponding to the audio involved in the case, it was "Conquest" itself and Liu Huaqiang who identified it, not Sun Honglei." ”
Screenshot of the TV series "Conquest"
The agent went on to point out that in this case, part of the audio claimed by Sun Honglei was based on the plot of the "Conquest" TV series 20 years ago, "Even if the voice comes from Sun Honglei's role of Liu Huaqiang, can Sun Honglei's voice now remain consistent with his voice 20 years ago?" (If it's not exactly the same, how can you tell which part is a distinguishing feature?) The essence of Sun Honglei's claim for the audio rights involved in the case is based on his performance behavior 20 years ago, rather than his current personality voice rights.
Extend:
Are the voices of the characters in the play protected by law?
Voice, like portrait, has personal attributes and is an important sign of personal identity on certain occasions. Prior to this, disputes over sound rights were commonplace, including the commercialization of Li Jiaqi's "oh my god, buy it" mantra logo, and the sound used in some mapping software.
In life, some navigation software will broadcast with the voice of the star, which can attract users, and when the voice has property attributes and shows corresponding economic value, the imitation, forgery, and use of other people's voices may cause damage to the personal rights and interests of the voice subject.
The reporter combed and found that there is not much research literature on the protection of voice rights in China, but more and more scholars are gradually realizing that voice rights should be protected.
Among them, Yang Lixin, convener of the Civil Code Codification Project of the China Law Society and professor of the Law School of Chinese Minmin University, once called for the inclusion of new personality rights such as voice rights in the personality rights law. Voice, like name and portrait, can refer to a specific natural person, has the worldly and exclusive nature of personality rights, and everyone has the right to protect their personal interests from scandalization or derogation, such as others through imitation, or directly use the voice of a natural person against the will of the natural person or ugly and derogatory scenes, the infringed party requests the exclusion of the nuisance, if damage is caused, the infringed party can also claim an apology, elimination of adverse impact, restoration of reputation, compensation for moral damages, etc.
According to Article 1023 of the Civil Code, the protection of the voice of natural persons can be applied by reference to the provisions on the protection of portrait rights, that is, the provisions of Article 1018 of the Civil Code on the power of portrait rights, the provisions of Article 1019 on prohibiting infringement of portrait rights, the provisions of Article 1020 on the reasonable use of portrait rights, and the provisions of Articles 1021 to 1022 on the commercial use of portrait rights.
Expert interpretation:
The issue in the case is whether it is "fair use"
In this regard, Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, told the cover news reporter, first of all, from a physiological point of view, after a person's adulthood, the voice will basically not change much, and from the perspective of the characteristics of identifiable to natural persons, because the protection of sound rights in the Civil Code refers to the provisions on the protection of portrait rights, therefore, from this point of view, as long as the identity characteristics of natural persons can be identified, then this voice right should be protected.
Zhu Wei pointed out, "Is this melon ripe? "Wait for the voice of the line, people who have watched the TV series or even if they haven't watched it, may know that it is Sun Honglei's voice when they hear it," his recognition can be said to be very high. So from this point of view, it should fall within the scope of the protection of voice rights in the Civil Code, and the issue is whether it is "fair use" and the amount and calculation of damages.
Professor Zhu Wei told reporters that in this small game, the "Liu Huaqiang" character played by Sun Honglei in "Conquest" and the related crowd are drained by sound, and through this drainage method to obtain customers, after "customer acquisition", there is a certain amount of income directly or indirectly, "This income can be determined to be profit infringement, but what is the specific proportion, how to calculate, this depends on how the court decides." ”
The right to voice is protected, so is it impossible to use other people's voices freely in the future? Is video dubbing considered infringement? For example, he said, before this, there had been many similar disputes over sound rights, some involving trademarks, some involving copyright disputes, "For example, I posted an explanation on a certain platform, which was infringed by others, and after a while, the platform issued a report, saying that such and such a video and my video copy overlapped, and the platform directly dealt with it, because the platform handled it in accordance with copyright disputes, which is actually the same as similar ways of handling infringement." ”
Column editor-in-chief: Qin Hong Text editor: Dong Siyun Title picture source: Shangguan title picture Photo editor: Yong Kai
Source: Author: Cover News