With the rapid development of the live broadcasting industry, the disputes caused by live broadcasting have become more and more frequent in people's view, and the first one is the copyright disputes. Today, we should pay attention to such a case that the anchor chased the drama with the fans on the live broadcast platform - recently, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court concluded a lawsuit against infringement of a series broadcast on the tiger tooth live broadcast platform**
Source: Legal Network
At the end of 2019, iqiyi The company found that in the "watch together" zone of the tiger tooth live broadcast platform, there were anchors who set up rooms to broadcast the TV series Langya Bang 24 hours a day.
In this unauthorized live room, viewers can watch the TV series Langya bang for free without paying. Since the TV series Langya bang was launched on iqiyi video platform in September 2015, iqiyi platform users need to pay for membership to watch this popular TV series.
The plaintiff, iqiyi company, said that in Chinese Mainland, iqiyi company enjoys the exclusive right to disseminate the TV series Langya Bang to the public through mobile phones, computers, set-top boxes and other new media terminals, as well as the corresponding rights to protect its rights. After discovering the infringement, iqiyi believed that Huya's unauthorized dissemination of the TV series Langya Bang infringed iqiyi's copyright. As a result, iqiyi company took Huya company to court.
The court of first instance held that the act of the anchor involved in the case directly infringed the copyright enjoyed by iqiyi company in respect of the works involved. In this case, Huya company, as the operator of Huya live broadcasting platform, failed to fulfill the necessary duty of care and made subjective mistakes. Huya company refused and appealed to Beijing Intellectual Property Court.
In the second instance, Huya company claimed that the live broadcasting room involved in the case was set up by a third-party network user. As a network service provider, Huya company has done its reasonable duty of care and timely fulfilled its obligation to take necessary measures after receiving the notice. Huya company should not bear the responsibility of helping infringe.
Huya said that the live broadcast platform of Huya only provides network technical services for users, and has set up complaint channels and standardized processing procedures for the live broadcast behavior of the anchor. The live broadcast platform can not monitor the live broadcast behavior of users, but the plaintiff has not made a complaint. After receiving the lawsuit materials, Huya company promptly blocked the anchor account and fulfilled the duty of care, which did not constitute infringement and unfair competition.
However, after seven forensics, iqiyi found that even if the live broadcasting room involved in the case was not logged in, it was still in the top position of the "watch together" channel for a long time. In addition, the live broadcasting room involved in the case is not a one-time infringement, but a 24-hour live broadcast of the TV series Langya list. The plaintiff iqiyi company added that there is a cooperative relationship between Huya company and the anchor and they enjoy the profit sharing. Therefore, Huya company's acts constitute joint infringement or help infringement and should bear certain obligations.
After hearing, the Beijing Haidian District People's court held that the "watch together" channel of the live broadcasting room involved in the case, which is located on the front page of the tiger tooth platform, is in a position that can be clearly perceived, and the tiger tooth company should be aware of the behavior of the anchor involved in the case. As the operator of the live broadcast platform, the defendant Huya company failed to fulfill the necessary duty of care, and had subjective fault, which constituted an infringement of help, and should bear corresponding legal liabilities.
In conclusion, the original judgment was upheld in the second instance. The court ordered Huya to compensate iqiyi for the economic loss of 200000 yuan and the reasonable expenses of 30000 yuan. The judgment was accurate and fair.
In this regard, lawyer peiyinzhou, a member of the legal expert library of the rule of law daily and a senior partner of Beijing Kangda law firm, analyzed that the case involved copyright infringement or unfair competition. Tiger tooth platform broadcast the hot drama Langya Bang without the authorization of iqiyi. In this case, iqiyi enjoyed "exclusive and exclusive information network communication rights" over the works involved. The anchor broadcasting the work involved without permission has constituted infringement.
Specifically, peiyinzhou said that for the tiger tooth platform, first of all, the works involved are located in the popular category of the tiger tooth platform. There are also films, TV dramas, variety shows, etc. in this channel. The possibility of individual users enjoying copyright is very low, and the platform should bear a higher duty of care; Secondly, the live broadcasting room involved in the case is in a popular channel, and the live broadcasting room has a high amount of attention. The title of the live broadcasting room also contains the words "Jiangzuo meilang Mei Changsu revenge drama". In combination with the popularity of the works involved, Huya company is easy to find that the live broadcasting room contains works with high possibility of infringement; Finally, the tiger tooth platform can get a large share from the live broadcast process. Huya platform shall know clearly that the live broadcast room infringes the copyright of iqiyi company on the grounds of network users, and shall bear the corresponding liability for helping the infringement. The court of first and second instance hereby determined that Huya platform infringes the copyright of iqiyi company, and shall bear the corresponding liability for infringement.
Lizhaoling, a member of the legal expert pool of the rule of law daily and executive director of the Intellectual Property Department II of Beijing Yingke Law Firm, also believes that according to the information disclosed in this case, the reason why Huya platform should bear the liability for compensation is that it has not taken necessary measures for "obvious" infringement. In the disputes over the right of information network communication, for example, the network platform of Huya platform should not only fulfill the obligation of "Notification - deletion", but also take the initiative to take measures to detect and stop the "obvious" infringement. If the network platform should take necessary measures but fails to take them, it is easy to be identified as having subjective fault, and then assume tort liability because of the behavior of the network users of the platform. In legal practice, network platforms usually set up technical and institutional measures in the business process to find and stop "obvious" infringement, and form corresponding evidence to prove that they are "no fault".
The Research Institute of rule of law network noted that some netizens had asked whether the "watch together" column in the live broadcast of tiger tooth had infringed the copyright. The official answer is: application is required, which involves copyright issues. It can be seen that tiger tooth also attaches certain importance to circumventing copyright issues.
In fact, the case of Huya live broadcast infringement is not an individual case. A few years ago, Hu Ya sat in the "dock" early. And the grudge between iqiyi and Huya didn't start until recently. The confrontation between the two companies around copyright disputes vividly annotates the legal practice of "information network communication right".
As early as 2016, the two companies went to court for a dispute over the infringement of Huya anchor's broadcast of tomb robbing notes. The focus of the dispute in this case is whether the anchor of Huya platform should bear the liability for infringement by broadcasting the TV series "tomb robbing notes" which iqiyi has the exclusive right to network communication of information without authorization.
In 2020, this four-year infringement dispute case will finally come to an end. At that time, after the retrial and conclusion of the Beijing Higher People's court, the court finally determined that Huya platform had taken reasonable measures, and there was no subjective fault for the anchor's infringement, which did not constitute a helping infringement. The "notice delete" rule was applied, so it rejected iqiyi's retrial application.
Why do two similar cases have different judgments?
In this regard, according to Li Zhaoling's analysis, the reason why the disputes over the right of information network communication are complex lies in the fact that different infringement acts, different infringed works and different operating mechanisms of the network platform lead to different duty of care of the network platform. Therefore, in specific cases, when determining whether the network platform has "fault", it needs to be judged in combination with the specific circumstances and the factors involved. "From a legal point of view, the identification and judgment of the case need to focus on the specific infringement, the network platform control mechanism, the duty of care and fault of the accused infringer. The specific infringement, the types of the infringed works involved in the two cases are different, and the specific business model, such as whether to set up a special zone, the duty of care of the network platform as a network server, is also very different. Therefore, the judgment There is also rationality in different decision results. "
Peiyinzhou reminded that the current rapid development of online live broadcasting platforms, the rise of various free live dramas, there are great risks. If a TV play or movie is broadcast in the live broadcasting room, the anchor is involved in direct infringement without the authorization and permission of the copyright owner. Therefore, the anchor should pay attention to avoiding the broadcast of unauthorized TV plays or movies. As for the platform, as a network service provider, we should pay reasonable attention to the obligation, increase the screening and screening of the live broadcasting room, and provide complaint channels. In addition, we can also consider signing a copyright license agreement with the copyright owner to obtain the authorization of the copyright owner and avoid infringement.
Text / zhengchunxin, Zeng Feiying, shenruoshui