In recent years, online shopping has become increasingly popular
In the marketing of goods
Major businesses are hollowing out
I want to get more attention and views
Even in order to "rub the heat"
Clothes, accessories, glasses, etc.
They have been labeled as "XX with the same paragraph".
This unauthorized use of film and television screenshots
Is "diversion traffic" infringing?
Brief facts of the case
The TV series "It's All Good" is produced by a company, and the TV series was simultaneously broadcast on Zhejiang Satellite TV and other platforms on March 1, 2019. On May 17, 2023, the company issued a "Letter of Authorization" to grant a film and television company the relevant copyright rights required for the use of TV series stills it owns on the Internet. Later, a film and television company discovered that Company A had posted multiple transaction links in its Taobao online store, and the linked product promotion page used screenshots of the TV series "It's All Good" to promote and promote the clothing it sold. A film and television company believed that the act infringed on its right to disseminate information on the network of stills, and sued Company A for compensation for economic losses and reasonable expenses for rights protection totaling 61,000 yuan.
Heard by the courts
The Beilin District People's Court of Xi'an Municipality held after trial that the TV series "All is Good" is an audio-visual work as provided for in the Copyright Law, and that the audio-visual work is composed of a series of pictures with or without accompanying sound, and that Company A used screenshots of the episodes of the TV series "All Are Good" in its Taobao store, which is a part of the continuous picture of the audio-visual work, and is an integral part of the audio-visual work, and should be protected by the "Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China".
A film and television company is authorized to obtain the relevant copyright rights required for the use of stills of the TV series involved in the case on the Internet, and has the right to file a lawsuit in its own name. Company A used the screenshots of the TV series "It's All Good" to promote the apparel products it operated without permission, and after comparison, it was found to be the same work as the screenshots of the drama series, so that the public could obtain the works involved in the case at a selected time and place, infringing on the information network dissemination rights enjoyed by a film and television company, comprehensively considering the popularity of the TV series involved in the case, the difficulty of creation, the sales volume and price of the alleged infringing goods, the degree of subjective fault of the defendant's infringement, the scale of the infringement, the time of infringement, Factors such as the attention of the store, the plaintiff's rights protection method and actual expenditure, etc., determine the amount of compensation as appropriate.
In the end, the court ruled that Company A should compensate a film and television company for economic losses of 6,000 yuan. After the judgment was pronounced, none of the parties appealed, and the case has taken legal effect.
What the judge said
Xu Yang
Beilin District Court
Vice-President of the Comprehensive Trial Division
The right of information network dissemination, that is, the right to make a work available to the public by wire or wireless means, so that the public can obtain the work at a time and place of their own choosing. Although the same style of hit drama will bring huge traffic, online store operators should be aware that the use of other people's works without the permission of the right holder may constitute infringement of the right of information network transmission. If there is a real need for publicity, you can contact the right holder to obtain authorization, so as to avoid the infringement of the wealth of the sky in seconds.
Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China
Article 10: Copyright includes the following personal rights and property rights: (12) the right of information network dissemination, that is, the right to provide works to the public by wired or wireless means, so that the public can obtain the works at a time and place of their own choosing;
Article 53: Where any of the following infringements is committed, the civil liability provided for in Article 52 of this Law shall be borne according to the circumstances: Where the infringements simultaneously harm the public interest, the department in charge of copyright shall order them to stop the infringing acts, give them a warning, confiscate the illegal gains, confiscate and harmlessly destroy the infringing copies, as well as the materials, tools, and equipment mainly used for the production of infringing copies, and if the illegal business turnover is more than 50,000 yuan, a fine of not less than one time but not more than five times the illegal business turnover may be imposed concurrently; Where the illegal business turnover is difficult to calculate or is less than 50,000 yuan, a fine of not more than 250,000 yuan may be imposed concurrently;
(1) Without the permission of the copyright owner, reproduction, distribution, performance, screening, broadcasting, compilation, or dissemination of their works to the public through information networks, except as otherwise provided by this Law;
Article 54: Where a copyright or copyright-related rights are infringed, the infringer shall compensate the right holder in accordance with the actual losses suffered by the right holder or the illegal gains of the infringer; Where copyright or copyright-related rights are intentionally infringed, and the circumstances are serious, compensation may be given between 1 and 5 times the amount determined in accordance with the methods described above.
Where it is difficult to calculate the actual losses of the rights holder, the illegal gains of the infringer, or the royalties of the rights, the people's court shall make a judgment to give compensation of not less than 500 yuan but not more than 5 million yuan based on the circumstances of the infringement.
The amount of compensation shall also include the reasonable expenses paid by the right holder to stop the infringement.
Source: Xi'an Intermediate People's Court
Editor: Sharon