Member Peng Jing: It is suggested that the relevant laws and regulations list "washing" as a statutory situation of copyright infringement

The Paper's reporter Wang Xin and intern Cheng Fangxun

Photo courtesy of Peng Jing

In recent years, "content clicks 100,000+" has increasingly become the law of self-media survival. Driven by this, the phenomenon of "washing" other people's works "packaged" as their original works occurs frequently through content tampering, word order adjustment, structural reshaping and expression conversion of other people's works.

At this year's "two sessions", Peng Jing, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and founding partner of Chongqing Jingsheng Law Firm, submitted a proposal on "Countermeasures and Suggestions on Strengthening the Legal Regulation of Self-media Washing". She believes that the existence of the phenomenon of "washing manuscripts" not only damages the creative enthusiasm of the original creators, but also exposes the shortcomings of China's legal protection of intellectual property rights.

Peng Jing believes that in general, the phenomenon of "washing drafts" has been repeatedly prohibited, exposing the following legal problems:

First, the law does not protect the copyright of original creators perfectly. At present, the basis for regulating the "washing" behavior in China is mainly the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China and the Regulations on the Protection of the Right of Dissemination on Information Networks. In accordance with the principle of separation of thought and expression, the Copyright Law does not protect ideas, only protects the author's expression of ideas, and the manuscript washer takes advantage of this, works the expression of words, and strives to achieve more than 90% difference in text expression between the original work, making it difficult for the Copyright Law to determine the infringement of the draft washing act.

Second, the network operation platform is ineffective in reviewing works. The "manuscript washing" behavior mainly uses technology to collect information on original works, and automatically plagiarizes "flower transfer trees" in batches, and is widely disseminated through the network. It is difficult for the platform to effectively prevent the originality of the work by relying on the traditional double-check technology. From the perspective of specific regulatory measures, the existing platform supervision mainly relies on measures such as user complaint collegiality, platform verification and suspension handling, and these "self-discipline mechanisms" are difficult to achieve the desired governance effect.

Third, it is difficult to accurately crack down on the behavior of "washing drafts". Usually, the selection of original works and the "in-depth" processing of "washed manuscripts" are based on multiple original works, and the rights defenders often involve multiple authors, and due to the hidden form, the probability of being discovered by the original authors is very small, and it is difficult to "unite" to protect rights. Even if the regulatory authorities can find the "washing" behavior, due to the lack of clear legal regulatory measures, the review of the "washing" behavior by the regulatory authorities often requires professional and complex procedures, which is difficult to ensure the timeliness of the crackdown.

In order to effectively regulate the "washing" behavior and effectively protect the intellectual property rights of the originals, Peng Jing suggested improving the legal system for the protection of intellectual property rights in China. She suggested that the Copyright Law and the Implementing Regulations of the Copyright Law clearly list "washing" as a statutory situation for copyright infringement, and at the same time stipulate the legal liability for "washing" acts. Specifically, it is suggested that the legislative department improve the method of determining the originality of the work, add provisions on "washing the draft", and ensure that there is a law to rely on to crack down on the "washing" behavior.

"The second is to formulate specific rules for investigating and punishing manuscript washing." Peng Jing said that on the basis of summing up China's law enforcement and judicial experience, the competent departments of relevant industries should issue special regulations on the investigation and handling of "draft washing" behavior at an appropriate time, and clarify the responsible departments, investigation and handling methods, specific procedures, and relief methods for investigating and handling "washing drafts." At the same time, when necessary, an expert committee is formed to identify the "manuscript washing" behavior, and strengthen the public's normative supervision of the washing behavior, so as to ensure that the procedures for investigation and handling are proper and the results are fair.

Peng Jing introduced that at present, in addition to the intellectual property courts of the Supreme People's Court, China also has three intellectual property courts (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou) and more than 20 intellectual property courts throughout the country. On the basis of summarizing the trial of "manuscript washing" cases, we can continuously improve the mechanism for determining "manuscript washing" cases and unify adjudication standards, realize the accurate characterization of "manuscript washing" acts and adjudicate according to law, and truly give play to the function of intellectual property protection.

Peng Jing said that the "washing" behavior has the characteristics of anytimeness and concealment, on the basis of strengthening the supervision of functional departments and helping the original creators to protect their rights, it is also necessary to strengthen the self-discipline supervision of the Internet industry on the "washing" behavior, strengthen the publicity of the illegal behavior of "washing the draft", improve the reporting reward mechanism and complaint handling mechanism of the "washing" behavior, increase the punishment measures for the "washing" behavior and related subjects, and achieve the timely discovery and effective disposal of the "washing" behavior.

Editor-in-charge: Yubing Tang