【Legal Vision: Intellectual Property Protection of Cultural Works (3)】
Guangming Daily reporter Yang Tongtong
"I want to go to the mountains and rivers in the distance, I want to go to the beach to see the seagulls......" The song "You Look Good When You Laugh" is loved by everyone because of its cheerful and beautiful melody. The Hangzhou branch of Bank of Wenzhou produced a video of the Employees' Fun Games, chose the chorus version of the song as the background music, and uploaded it to the Douyin platform. This kind of dissemination attracted the attention of the copyright owner of the song, and the bank was sued in court. In the end, the court found that the defendant had committed infringement without the permission of the copyright owner.
In recent years, infringement incidents and topics caused by lyrics adaptation, cover songs in live broadcast rooms, and background music of short videos have frequently appeared on hot searches, triggering public discussions and concerns about music copyright.
In 2020, the third revision of the Copyright Law supplemented and revised the scope of protection for the music industry, giving more prominence to the protection of the rights and interests of music creators and providing a legal basis for the protection of digital music rights. Today, when music creation and singing are becoming more popular, it is necessary to strengthen the copyright protection of music works and further stimulate the creative enthusiasm of music creators, so that the flowers of music can bloom more brilliantly and colorfully.
Let the awareness of music copyright protection be more deeply rooted
"Borrow from the Sky for Another 500 Years", as the theme song of the TV series "Kangxi Dynasty", has been widely sung. In June 2022, game anchor Liu improvised the song during a live broadcast. After learning about the song's copyright owner and composer Zhang Hongguang, he sued for compensation. The incident rushed to the hot search for a while, and finally many parties reached an agreement and ended with Liu's apology.
Zhang Hongguang once said that the amount of the claim is not important, but the important thing is to call on all sectors of society to pay more attention to music copyright, so that more musicians can be rewarded for their hard work, and creators are encouraged to create more excellent works.
The cast and crew sang the song "The Most Beautiful Chinese Style" at the Beijing Cultural Forum Gala. Xinhua News Agency
"This incident is a typical infringement of using someone else's work without the permission of the music rights holder. In recent years, under the guidance of the revision of the Copyright Law and the relevant policies of the National Copyright Administration, the copyright protection environment of the music industry has continued to improve, and the awareness of rights holders to protect and protect music intellectual property rights has also increased. Liu Chengwei, a professor at the Institute of Comparative Law of China University of Political Science and Law, pointed out.
Nowadays, it is not uncommon to cover music and reinterpret songs. This involves an important element of copyright – the protection of the right to integrity of the work. Article 31 of the Copyright Law stipulates that publishers, performers, producers of audio and video recordings, radio stations, television stations, etc., who use the works of others in accordance with the relevant provisions of this Law, shall not infringe upon the author's right of authorship, the right to modify, the right to protect the integrity of the work, and the right to receive remuneration.
The song "Mother in the Candlelight", which has accompanied the memory of a generation, has been infringed. Without the consent of the lyricist Li Chunli, a music group publicly sang the song after unauthorized changes in the program "I Am a Singer" on Hunan Satellite TV. After negotiation, Hunan Satellite TV issued a public apology letter.
"The adaptation changed the original meaning of the song, which is unacceptable to me. However, in recent years, with the improvement of copyright awareness, many performers will contact themselves in advance to obtain consent for singing or adapting songs, Li Chunli said.
Liu Chengwei explained that the right to protect the integrity of the work is the right to protect the work from distortion and tampering, and even if the authorization to modify is obtained, it is necessary to prevent improper alteration or use of the work, so as to prevent the work from correctly reflecting the thoughts and feelings that the author originally wanted to express.
"In the past, people were Xi enjoying and easily downloading music without spending a penny. When music becomes digital music with the Internet as a carrier, the concept of genuine and pirated is more blurred, which is a greater test for the improvement of users' awareness of intellectual property protection. Zhang Ping, a professor at Peking University Law School, suggested that the publicity of the concept of intellectual property protection on the Internet should be strengthened, and legal popularization tips should be carried out on digital music platforms with genuine authorization, so as to promote the public's understanding of the importance of genuine digital music purchase channels to the ecology of the music industry, and establish an awareness of copyright protection of music works.
In the Internet era, the phenomenon of infringement in new forms of business is prominent
There was a song "I'm willing to be by your side ordinarily" in the music library of a short video platform, which was used as background music for users to use when making short videos. A communication company that owns the copyright of the song took the platform to court. The communication company believes that a certain platform uploaded the song to the platform's music library without authorization for the purpose of profit, causing the song to be widely disseminated on the Internet, which seriously infringed its right to disseminate information on the network.
During the trial, the defendant argued that the song in question was highly overlapping with another single for which it owned the copyright and should not constitute a work, and that the short video works were uploaded by network users, most of them were covered by users, and the platform was only an information network service provider, which did not constitute infringement.
At Renmin Town Central Primary School in Anda City, Heilongjiang Province, a music teacher recorded a short video for the children in the music class on the school lawn. Xinhua News Agency
After learning that the off-case single had plagiarized or plagiarized the lyrics of the song in question, and that the defendant had not provided the information of the uploader of the song in question, the court ruled that the defendant had infringed the plaintiff's right to disseminate information on the Internet, and that the infringement should be stopped and the losses should be compensated.
Nowadays, short videos have become a very popular way to distribute content, and music is one of the important elements in the production of short video content. There are a large number of music available for users to choose from on short video platforms, and some music is provided to users without the authorization of the copyright owner, which expands the scope of music dissemination and many copyright disputes arise.
According to the Report on China's Digital Music Industry (2022), from 2013 to 2022, the total size of the mainland's digital music market increased from 44.07 billion yuan to 155.49 billion yuan. By the end of 2022, the total number of songs on the digital music platform exceeded 132 million, and the number of users reached about 848 million. Liu Chengyun pointed out: "In the Internet era, online infringement is relatively common, especially in new formats and fields such as online music platforms, live broadcasts, short videos, and online karaoke platforms. Infringement acts are often concealed and scattered, with various types, and the cost of evidence collection by rights holders is relatively high, which further increases the difficulty of rights protection. ”
Li Weina, president of the case filing division of the Beijing Internet Court, said that since the establishment of the court in September 2018, as of November 2023, the court has accepted a total of 4,812 online music copyright disputes, and concluded 4,286 cases. Since online original musicians usually use stage names or even multiple stage names when releasing original songs, and some stage names do not correspond to their self-media accounts, confirming the relationship between the work and the original musician is often the first issue to be resolved in these cases.
"There are several types of music infringement and use that are typical, for example, if an Internet user makes a short video of a cover song and disseminates it, it infringes the copyright owner's right of information network transmission, and if another person's song is used for secondary creation and then disseminated, it infringes on the right of adaptation and information network transmission. Online platforms will also be guilty of providing unauthorized songs, participating in the dissemination of traffic, and failing to fulfill their duty of care. Li Weina believes that judges should pay special attention to taking into account the interests of music creators, communicators, platform operators and the public during the trial process.
All parties work together to protect music copyright
The Music Copyright Society of China (hereinafter referred to as the "Music Copyright Association") found that songs such as "Tunnel War" and "Yingshan Hong" under its management appeared on the Kuwo Music platform without authorization, and users could play and download them online. The Association then took the company to court.
Recently, the case ushered in the first-instance verdict. The court of first instance held that the Music Writers Association was authorized to enjoy the copyright related to the lyrics and songs of the songs involved in the case, and ruled that the relevant company constituted infringement and should bear legal liability such as stopping the infringement and compensating for losses.
It is understood that the mainland copyright collective management system began in the 90s of the 20th century and has been implemented for more than 30 years. The Music Writers Association is the first collective copyright management organization in mainland China. Liu Ping, vice chairman and director general of the Music Writers Association, said that by the end of 2022, the number of members of the Music Writers Association had reached 12,000, covering most of the well-known music creators in China, including composers, lyricists, heirs, and other individuals and groups legally owning music copyrights. In addition, as a member of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), the Collaboration has signed mutual representation agreements with more than 80 similar organizations around the world under the international copyright protection system for musical works, and can manage the copyrights of more than 16 million musical works by about 3 million songwriters worldwide, including rights of reproduction, performance, broadcasting, information network transmission and other rights that are difficult for individual music copyright owners to exercise.
The collective management system is an important guarantee for the protection and protection of music copyright. Zhang Ping suggested that in the face of new challenges in the Internet era, music copyright collective management organizations should increase investment, introduce digital technologies such as blockchain into the online music processing and management system, and promote the management organization to update the registration, registration, authorization and other procedures of digital music works.
"In the online music copyright cases heard by our court, the parties are more willing to mediate. Li Weina said. Adhering to the concept of "court + all sectors of society", the Beijing Internet Court provides multiple channels for rights holders to resolve the issue, and jointly builds the country's first copyright non-litigation mediation platform with multiple parties, promoting the prevention and pre-litigation resolution of digital copyright disputes, and building a pattern of social co-governance of copyright.
Liu Chengwei believes that all the burden of rights protection cannot be concentrated on the copyright holder, and relevant parties such as copyright collective management organizations, Internet platforms, and network users should enhance their awareness of intellectual property protection and exercise their rights in a timely manner. The administrative copyright management departments, judicial organs, and so forth shall also actively participate in the process of protecting intellectual property rights, pursuing the legal responsibility of infringers in accordance with law, and protecting the lawful rights and interests of copyright holders. He said that only by forming a joint social force can we create an atmosphere of music copyright protection in which "everyone participates and everyone benefits" and promotes the healthy development of the mainland's cultural market.
Guangming Daily (December 23, 2023 05 edition)
Source: Guangming Net-Guangming Daily