"There is no time to watch long dramas, go to Douyin to review the commentary, which saves time and does not have to spend money to start a video member."
Following the Kuaishou infringement iQiyi was sentenced to pay more than 1 million yuan in compensation in August this year, a case of long and short video disputes has added another case. The main parties to the conflict this time are "old enemies" - Douyin and Tencent . The compensation amount directly refreshed the compensation record of online film and television copyright cases in courts across the country, , up to 32.4 million yuan.
was edited and uploaded in large quantities for the exclusive web drama " Yunnan Insect Valley ", and Tencent Video sued Douyin to court. The court's first-instance judgment held that Douyin should immediately take effective measures to delete, filter and intercept relevant videos, and compensate Tencent for economic losses and reasonable expenses of more than 32.4 million yuan.
Image source: Douban screenshot
However, until now, Beijing Business Daily reporters can still see different edited and commentary versions of "Yunnan Insect Valley" on multiple short video platforms. At the same time, accounts with film and television works as the main content also exist in large numbers. They not only release new works that have just been launched, but also have old works that have been broadcast for many years.
It can be seen that the chaos in short video editing is difficult to curb. The reason is nothing more than the lack of copyright awareness among short video creators and the repeated appearance of a large number of infringing accounts and works, which makes it more difficult to clean up the platform.
record! Douyin has awarded more than 32 million yuan in compensation
Recently, the dispute over long and short video copyright between Tencent and Douyin has made new progress. On October 26, the Xi'an Intermediate People's Court made a first-instance judgment on the "Yunnan Insect Valley" case. The court held that a large number of users on the Douyin platform have committed infringement of the works involved. Although Douyin has taken measures to reduce the number of infringing works, the infringement has not been effectively curbed. Therefore, Douyin is a helping infringement. It should immediately take effective measures to delete, filter, and intercept related videos, and compensate Tencent for economic losses and reasonable expenses of more than 32.4 million yuan.
Picture source: Douyin screenshot
Information shows that "Yunnan Insect Valley" is a suspense adventure online drama produced by Penguin Film and Television , adapted from the Tianxia Bachang novel "Ghost Blows Out the Light: Yunnan Insect Valley", which was exclusively broadcast on Tencent Video on August 30, 2021. The verdict of
shows that according to the facts found by the court, Douyin is ignorant of the acts of infringing on the network dissemination rights of the works involved in the case by its platform users in large quantities and intensively infringe on the Internet of Information Dissemination Rights of the Works involved in the case, and it is hard to say that it is unknown when the rights holders of "Yunnan Insect Valley" repeatedly warn, complain during the process, file lawsuits, and apply for preservation. Microbroad Vision (TikTok Operating Company) has the ability to effectively manage the infringing content on the platform, and has not taken appropriate measures to control the infringing content on the platform within a reasonable period. It has allowed and even facilitated the dissemination rights of a large number of works involved in the case of infringing on the Internet of Information Dissemination of Information Network Short Videos through the "TikTok" platform and many creative tools within the "TikTok" platform.
It is worth noting that the compensation amount of more than 32.4 million yuan in this case directly broke the national compensation record for similar cases, 16 times the highest record last year and hundreds of times the same case. It is also the highest compensation obtained by Tencent in film and television copyright cases.
In response to this, the relevant legal person in charge of Douyin said that he would appeal the case.
From war of words to litigation cases, long and short videos have been fighting forever
Since 2021, the contradiction between long and short videos has escalated for a while, and the copyright dispute has entered a white-hot stage.
First, in April 2021, 73 institutions represented by five video websites including iQiyi, You and Tencent jointly issued a joint statement to boycott editing and handling, pointing the finger at short video infringement.In this regard, some netizens supported it and believed that it was necessary to maintain intellectual property rights; while some netizens expressed disdain, saying that short videos were actually "advertising" long videos, and long videos were "just behaved when they got cheap."
htmlIn June, at the 9th China Online Audio-Visual Conference , "iyou and Tencent" once again collectively "fired". iQiyi CEO O Gong Yu said that short video infringement destroys intellectual property rights and leads to unfair competition. Youku President Fan Luyuan said, "I hope the whole society will crack down on infringement like a crackdown on drunk driving." Tencent Online Video CEO O Sun Zhonghuai throws out the "pig food theory". He said that some low-intelligence and vulgar short video content has long affected the minds of users, and complained about personalized distribution, "If you like pig food, all you see is pig food."
In addition to fighting a war of words, legal weapons have become an important way to compete for long and short videos. Among them, the war between Tencent and Douyin is particularly fierce.
According to relevant information, from June to December last year, Tencent sued Douyin 168 times in 18 courts in 13 provinces across the country on the grounds of infringing on copyright and unfair competition with , with a total claim of more than 2.943 billion yuan.
In August this year, iQiyi sued Kuaishou for the editing and uploading of " Lao Jiumen " by a short video platform. The final judgment was made to compensate iQiyi Company for economic losses of 1 million yuan and reasonable expenses of 144,200 yuan. In 2021, Beijing Internet Court made a first-instance judgment on the infringement of the drama " Rock Candy Stewed Snow Pears ", and Youku won the case and was compensated RMB 460,000; the court ordered Kuaishou to compensate Youku for a total of RMB 290,000 in the case of Kuaishou's infringement of " Daming Fenghua ".
Internet analyst Zhang Jingke said similar disputes have always existed.
Arbitrary adaptation of other people's works is suspected of infringement
"2021 China Online Short Video Copyright Monitoring Report" data shows that from January 2019 to May 2021, 12426 Copyright Monitoring Center monitored the secondary creation short videos of 13 million original short videos and film and television variety shows, and monitored a total of 3 million infringing accounts, and notified that 14.786 million Erchuang infringement and 4.1631 million original infringement short videos were deleted, involving 5.01 trillion clicks.
The specifications and supervision of secondary creation of film and television works have a long history. As early as 2018, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued the "Notice on Further Standardizing the Dissemination Order of Online Audio-Visual Programs", resolutely prohibiting illegal capture, editing, and adapting audio-visual programs. The National Film Administration also pointed out that it will resolutely rectify the infringement of short video platforms, self-media and public account producers and operators of unauthorized copying, editing, and disseminating other people's film works, and actively protect the legitimate rights and interests of the majority of film copyright owners.
Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm Lawyer Zhao Hu said that it is both common sense and legal provision to use other people's works. The " Copyright Law " clearly stipulates that adaptation, modification, performance, filming, and online dissemination of other people's works without the authorization of the copyright owner are suspected of constituted infringement of the copyright owner's rights. Unauthorized use of works broadcast on film and television platforms to edit short videos and upload them to the platform, which violates the relevant provisions of the Copyright Law. In the future, short video platforms should continue to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in , thereby reducing the occurrence of such incidents.
Edit丨Wu Tiantian Comprehensive Beijing Business Daily (Reporter Zheng Rui Han Xinyuan), Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, Observer.com, etc.
pictures丨Douban screenshot, Douyin screenshot, Weibo @Tencent Video, Visual China
