Pan and Lin: The "online dissemination" of book copyright must break the monopoly of the platform

Zhongxin Jingwei December 24 Title: The "online dissemination" of book copyright must break the monopoly of the platform

Author Pan Helin Executive Dean of digital economy research institute of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, special expert of Sino-Singapore Jingwei Research Institute

In recent years, China's copyright market has developed rapidly, and most readers have become accustomed to paying for reading. Society as a whole is paying more and more attention to the protection of intellectual property rights, and copyrights, patent rights, trademark rights, etc. have become an important source of income for intellectuals. However, with the deepening of copyright protection, conflicts between copyright owners and users are also increasing, and disputes over the results of copyright owners' rights protection are gradually increasing.

Online dissemination models accelerate the dissemination of copyright

Recently, the case of Zhao Dexin, a retired professor at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, suing CNKI for infringement has attracted widespread attention. For Professor Zhao Dexin's rights protection, most netizens gave positive comments. The core here is that CNKI is profitable. Different from the nature of online business of public schools and libraries, it is unreasonable for CNKI not to give authors copyright fees because of the nature of profit. After Professor Zhao Dexin won the case, CNKI deleted its relevant papers and apologized. Although the spread of Professor Zhao Dexin's works has been affected, while he defended his rights, he has indeed improved the welfare of the public and enhanced the positive energy of society.

The same problem arose in Visual China a few years ago. Visual China sued self-media people through image copyright, which was criticized by society and the media. But in fact, the main problem of Visual China is that it has not obtained the copyright authorization of the picture, and it has sued the other party in the name of the copyright owner, especially in the field of self-media. This also involves issues such as copyright registration review.

Recently, Zheng Yuanjie stopped publishing "Fairy Tale King", applied for trademark rights through copyright, and carried out the news of rights protection, which has become a new topic of IP property rights. Zheng Yuanjie created many classic animation images through creation, which were stolen by some merchants on goods without the consent of the creators.

In recent years, there have been more and more copyright lawsuits because of the awakening of copyright awareness, but also because the online dissemination model has accelerated the speed of copyright dissemination.

How to reconcile the relationship between the two sides?

On the one hand, copyright owners need to protect their rights and interests; on the other hand, copyright users want to obtain legal authorization and be able to use them normally. So, how to reconcile the relationship between the two sides? The author believes that we can start from the following aspects:

First, redefine the pattern of unauthorized use. For example, image copyright can obtain the right to use pictures through "non-profit purposes" and "attribution"; book copyright can obtain copyright rights through "non-profit purposes" and "campus network dissemination". The emphasis here is mainly on "non-profit purposes" and limited dissemination. The same work, if it is cited to promote the product, must pay a copyright fee. Although there are also relevant provisions in the Copyright Law that exempt from unauthorized use, the discretion of judges is still relatively large.

Second, open up authorization channels. Copyrights with high frequency and low unit price need to open up fast authorization channels. The copyright owner authorizes the platform, but also wants the platform to promote the dissemination, rather than let the platform block the transmission. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the number of authorized channels for users to use. The current Internet platform is actually a good docking model, through a variety of forms of authorization, to promote the dissemination of works.

Third, explore the trial reading mode, membership mode and electronic version of the purchase mode. The internet is characterized by high-speed dissemination and open sharing, which has a certain conflict with the past copyright management model. Over the past many years, the trial reading chapters opened in the field of online literature in China, and the way of monetizing copyrights purchased in the follow-up purchase have balanced copyright protection and dissemination so well that countries with strict copyright management such as Japan have followed suit.

Fourth, break the copyright monopoly. In the music field, the exclusive licensing model was suspended, and the platform could obtain equal authorization from copyright owners. This is a good way to break the monopoly model of some Internet platforms and is more suitable for the open Internet ecology. Therefore, in the field of copyright protection in the field of books and pictures, this method can also be adopted to avoid the accumulation of resources due to the exclusive monopoly of the platform.

In summary, the author believes that copyright interests need to be jointly maintained by copyright owners and users, moral constraints are often difficult to play a role, law is the key to solving the problem of copyright interest distribution, and the law also needs to further clarify the legal details. Especially in the era of the Internet and digital publications, laws that are more suitable for the era of digital publishing are needed to regulate behavior. In addition, we can also consider using blockchain and other means to strengthen the copyright of digital publications, so that digital publications have unique characteristics and can safeguard the interests of copyright owners in the process of wide dissemination. (Zhongxin Jingwei APP)

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