Net Red Survival Guide Series
Editor’s Note: This article is from WeChat public account “short video staff” (ID: viiideo), the author Gu Gu (gugu10101), please contact the original author. The original topic “Intellectual Property Disputes Frequently, How Does the Red River Lake in the Short Video Era Avoid Risk?” 》
A few days ago, the well-known upstairs, Jing Hanqing, sent a video about the true story that he was experiencing. Jing Hanqing himself received a lawyer’s letter because of the word “Jing Hanqing” and was squatted by a company. Require him to change his name.
This video has a volume of tens of millions in the short three days of the B station, and tens of thousands of comments. It has also caused many content creators and netizens to sneak up and check whether their names have been maliciously squatted.
▲Jing Hanqing tells the whole story in the video
Even if “Jing Hanqing” is not a net name, but its real name, facing such a legal dispute, Jing Hanqing still has to worry about consulting lawyers, preparing relevant materials, taking up a lot of time and energy, affecting creation. status. This kind of case does not only appear in the “upper master” of “Jing Hanqing”.
The network reds in the short video era are inevitably experiencing legal risks. Infringement of other people’s rights or interests is violated. No matter which one, it may have a big or small impact on the network reds. When they are big, they will be trapped, cancel their accounts, and they will work hard or break the money.
Trademark squatting is a relatively common way to “touch porcelain.” It is only a concentration of potential legal risks in the field of intellectual property, but not limited to fonts, music, images, scripts, trademarks, etc.
In the past one or two years, no matter whether it is true infringement or fake infringement, there are many people who have experienced intellectual property disputes like Jing Hanqing.
With the maturity of the short video industry, the rapid development of MCN has been exposed in the barbaric growth period.
The short video field is different from the mature film industry because of its diverse and short duration. There are no precedents in many cases. Whether it is for network creator content creators or platform parties, copyright owners, legal professionals, it is challenging. Next, such legal disputes will only surface more and more.
From the latitude of intellectual property, we have found several lawyers to communicate and discuss the legal risks of online reds in short video:
1. The winning and losing odds of Jing Hanqing’s squatting trademark case
2. What are the common legal risks of network reds in the short video era?
3, how to reduce legal risks?
4. What can the platform do for the creative ecology? What are the overseas experiences that can be used for reference?
The victory and defeat of Jing Hanqing case
According to the results of the inspection, the company with a registered capital of 20 yuan applied for 103 trademarks, including several well-known network red IDs.
From the official website of the State Intellectual Property Office, it can be inquired that the trademarks of Jing Hanqing’s multiple categories have been registered by different companies.
▲Shen Hanqing’s multiple trademarks of the same name were squatted
Can Jing Hanqing succeed in defending his rights and continue to use his own name on various content platforms? Can he withdraw the squatting trademark?
The well-known law KOL “Ma 66” is a senior lawyer, in her opinion:
▲ “The use of celebrity names, pen names, stage names to squat trademarks, and the use of celebrity effects to obtain benefits, Legally known as climbing, this behavior cannot be protected by law.”
Li Jun, a lawyer at Shanshan Law Firm, believes that
“In the case of Jing Hanqing, the name right is part of the personal right, which is greater than the property right. Therefore, even if the trademark right is registered, Jing Hanqing will not lose the right to use the name.”
“TrademarkArticle 32 of the Law stipulates that the application for trademark registration shall not prejudice the existing prior rights of others, nor shall it be able to preemptively register trademarks that have been used and have certain influence by others.
The views of different legal professions are different in respect of whether Jing Hanqing can successfully withdraw the trademarks being squatted.
Lawyer Li Jun believes that:
“The registration of a trademark right does not mean losing the right to use the name, but it will lose the commercial interest. The infringed party can revoke the trademark right by suing the other party for malicious registration, but it is difficult to determine whether it is malicious or not. The former registrar has applied the trademark to its products, so it is extremely unfavorable for the registered party in the lawsuit.”
The lawyer Ma 66 judges Jing Hanqing’s chances of winning:
“Jing Hanqing can now request the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board to declare the disputed trademark invalid. According to his popularity and influence, the success of defending the rights will not be too high.”
“This kind of professional trademark squatting industry chain has existed for a long time. Some net reds have encountered this phenomenon of squatting trademarks. I heard that they infringe on others, and they have no ability to judge whether it is really illegal, not only afraid of things. Exposure, more worried about the platform sales, so the hard-earned fans and popularity may be destroyed, rather spending money to avoid disasters, and people are better. And such companies are to seize the net red people’s mentality.” Ma 66 said .
I asked Ma 66. Some netizens suggested that Jing Hanqing should sue this company for cybersquatting. Does this make sense?
Ma 66 answers, can sue the other party for infringement, and should also be able to win, but the amount of compensation for damage is not too high. The amount of compensation is far less than the time cost invested in the matter.
As for how to judge whether the other party is “malicious registration” and “inappropriate use” in actual operation?
Ma 66 shares a big standard “See if the other party is for use.”
“For example, how well the three characters of Jing Hanqing are related to the registration subject; in addition, from the registration behavior of the other party, the trademarks themselves have no basic relationship with their main business; We can also observe how the company’s daily trading status is. If the company does not have a transaction, the overall situation can basically indicate that the company is maliciously registered.”
In April this year, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed a decision on amending the Trademark Law of the People’s Republic of China, focusing on the regulation of malicious applications, hoarding registrations, and increasing the punishment for violations of trademark exclusive rights. The law has been amended by individual clauses, which will be implemented as of November 1, 2019.
What are the common legal risks of network reds in the short video era?
Trademark squatting is just one of several legal risks facing online reds.
Intellectual Property Risks Because Jing Hanqing’s remarks have attracted everyone’s attention, but in addition to this, net red may also face violations of rights or even violations of the rights of others. For example, infringe on the copyright of others, infringe upon the portrait rights of others, and even infringe upon the reputation of others.
This article focuses on the intellectual property part of compliance issues, including copyright and trademark rights. As long as it is an independent creation, anything that expresses the core, form, and content of the thought can be used as copyright.
Commonly related to the online reds who infringe on the copyrights of others are: “fonts, music, images, scripts.”
Script Copyright
In 2016, Mr. Xin said in a question-and-answer community, “Which moment did you feel that you were caught or succeeded in getting someone else?”, and a textual answer based on personal experience was published. A total of more than 300 words, harvested 3,332 points and 459 comments. One year later, he found a short video storyline on social media that was basically the same as his own experience. The video started with the signature of the director and starring, and the watermark of the producer was printed in the upper left and lower right corners of the playback screen. The video length was 4 minutes and 48 seconds, and the amount of playback reached 14.59 million. Mr. Xin also resorted to the law.
In early July 2019, the Haidian District People’s Court of Beijing announced the results of the infringement case in which the question and answer were adapted into a short video. The two defendants were sentenced to stop the infringement and compensated the plaintiff Mr. Xin for an economic loss of 50,000 yuan. Reasonable expenses of 13,709 yuan.
“In the copyright law, the length of the content has no effect. The platform and the choice of expression form have no effect. The main criterion for the work is to see if it is original.”
Music Copyright
Many network reds don’t realize that their use of unauthorized background concerts in content involves infringement.
In early July, a well-known MCN received a lawsuit against music copyright infringement. The video soundtrack “Walking On the Sidewalk” uploaded by its IP was claimed by the copyright party for 250,000. The video has a total broadcast volume of more than 20.39 million on the whole platform, which is also the first short-video MCN commercial music infringement case in China.
But in fact, this case is only a case published. According to a lawyer, more than one MCN has encountered this situation and chose to settle.
When a creator wants to use a piece of music, there are usually three situations:
1, I don’t know who to buy, there is no exact channel.
2, bigMusic publishers such as Sony will license music to a number of third-party companies that are difficult to license for singles and are sold in years or other bundles. For creators, spending a lot of money on music, such a fast-changing product, is a low-cost behavior.
3. Even if you find a seemingly formal purchase channel, how can you protect the music itself from the material authorized by the author or the copyright owner? Attention should also be paid to ensuring or doing its best to ensure the integrity of the authorization chain.
It’s easy for network geeks to ignore the fact that creators use the music or other material provided by the platform in the station without infringement issues, but creators often distribute the work to multiple platforms, and between platforms There is no transfer agreement. If the creator uses the vibrating material library to create a video and distribute it to the fast hand or Weibo, there may be music copyright infringement.
After media reports, a headed MCN organization and VFine have a year-round cooperation in commercial music licensing, and the price of a thousand commercial music licenses in a year is about 400,000.
From the VFine official website price display, a single purchase of a regular music for network short video transmission, multi-project use, the annual cost is about 1,000 yuan.
The lawyer has settled the account,
“In the case of a small amount of music used, the cost of resolving after a problem is lower than the cost of actively seeking copyright. But now is a high-risk period for MCN music copyright litigation, in accordance with legal precedents and settlements. The amount of compensation for the first musical piece is about several thousand dollars.”
This is also the embarrassing situation of content organizations, preferring to have lower cost “infringement” consequences. However, with the frequent occurrence of such cases, the acquisition of copyrighted commercial works and the maintenance of rights will become more standardized, convenient and efficient. It is very likely that there will be a clear price tag when the network reds are using music works.
Overseas, creators are also facing music copyright disputes. Glenn Fricker is a heavy metal musician with a 330,000 subscriber channel on YouTube. He released a video on adapting digital music in 2014. In April of this year, after the video reached 600,000 broadcasts, he received an official notification from YouTube telling him that the video was blocked because 15 seconds of the clip used the music of the Iron Maiden.
The well-known YouTube content creator Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, who has 22.27 million fans, claims that he lost five digits just because he said Bon Jovi’s lyrics “livin’ on a prayer” in the video. Beauty Guru James Cha, a beauty blogger with 15.92 million fansRles also complained that he was litigated because of the unaccompanied adaptation of the song.
Video Copyright
On July 31st, the net red blogger Amoin, who was popular with “X minutes took you to watch the movie”, was sued by five film companies including Disney and went to the Taipei District Court to mediate the dispute. It has been going on for two years. In the interview, BBC Taiwan special correspondent Zheng Zhongkai learned two questions about the Guam video.
“The first is the source, no one knows what method he used to get the film;
Secondly, the purpose is that there is a clear advertising interest in the behavior of Guamo. These two points need to be explained clearly.
Font copyright
At present, the domestic font copyrights are almost owned by several companies such as Founder, Hanyi and Ruixian. There is not much room for designers to choose.
Even if you purchase certain font copyrights, there are still points to be aware of. Some MCN encountered such a case, they purchased a font usage right for content production, but this content is a product that cooperates with a third party, and is also published on the platform of the other party WeChat public number, which constitutes Infringement, because third-party companies do not own the font authorization.
“In fact, many short video content creators on the market are involved in font copyright issues.” A law firm in Chengdu recently received 12 cases of infringement of short video content industry fonts. (Follow the “Short Video Staff” background to enter “Copyright Fonts” to receive a list of free fonts.)
Image Copyright
Short video production often involves the insertion of a single image, so be aware that there are many copyright companies that will design their own images, bulk notarized copyrights and then publish them online, and then reverse-search for bulk infringement. Lawyers recommend minimizing the use of non-original pictures to avoid legal disputes.
Other potential risks
For example, in the short video industry, the exposure of LOGO and product brands should be avoided in the shooting. It may involve infringement problems. The specific situation will vary from brand company to company. The higher the high-end brand, the easier it is to be considered infringement.
In addition to intellectual property rights, online reds will also have income tax problems. If the income of the person is to enter the MCN or personal account, if you enter the personal account, you need to declare personal income tax, how to properly tax under the legal channel, it is worth Explore.
For example, the reputation right, some network reds maliciously evaluate other people in the live broadcast of the platform. If the other party actually carries out evidence preservation and protects themselves by legal means, then the Daren will be punished for infringing on the reputation of others.
How to reduce the risk of infringement?
1, take precautions. Common legal risks are violations and careless infringements. If you want to minimize the cost of infringement, you need to learn prevention in advance, such as whether your name will be squatted. , register trademarks early, and avoid letting other companies sneak in.
2. Record the creative process and save the evidence.
Record the record creation process as much as possible. Whether it’s on Weibo, knowing it or other social media platforms. The cake design of a food court red friend of lawyer Ma 66 was stolen by others. Fortunately, the food network red sent the entire creative process of the cake to Weibo, and the pictures and release time on Weibo proved its creative production time.
3. The best way to do this is to inform the platform.
The copyright of short videos is often encountered by infringement imitation, but the short video industry has high cost of rights protection and the benefits are particularly low. If a lawsuit is filed, the first trial will generally take three to six months, and the second trial may be dragged on for a longer period of time, which is a huge loss to the parties’ time, energy and financial resources.
Because the short video creation cycle is not long, the presentation format is short, the copying cost is low, and it is difficult to judge the economic loss after tracking responsibility. The best way to protect rights is to inform the platform side, because in general, the platform will receive the necessary measures to delete or block the infringing content within the time required by the law, so as to avoid the burden of legal liability.
4, Before encountering a legal dispute, you must not avoid it first, and face it face to face. Second, immediately seek the help and advice of professionals, not to be touched by porcelain.
What can the platform do for the creative ecology? What are the reference experiences overseas?
Some heads of MCN have their own team of legal consultants, and they also have the financial strength to solve copyright problems. However, for individual network red and small creative studios, it is inevitable to have legal experience, from initial risk control to disputes. After the response, there will be some loss of consideration.
How can content creators and network redgers reduce content production costs and reduce legal risk?
Music is a high-profile area of infringement in the short video field and is the easiest for creators to ignore. Taking music as an example, what can the platform and music industry do to actively change, to promote the development of the entire short video industry and network red economy? This is something that is worth exploring.
YouTube has an Audio Library that is open to all creators, in the app’s personal homepage. In addition to free music, sound effects are also available. Clicking on a song in the list of songs will prompt you for the open permission of the audio. Generally, you can mark “You can use the song in any video.”
On the other hand, YouTube also reminds the creator that “if you want to use it outside the platform, please make sure to contact the author and reach an agreement.”
Shaking is also doing this. Through the global access to genuine music copyright resources, the user is provided with some genuine music content, allowing users to create short videos. In addition, in the user agreement of the vibrato, the uploaded content is released by vibrato, and the company and related companies, control companies, and inherited companies are granted a worldwide, free, non-exclusive, and licenseable right, which means that The music and sounds uploaded by users can be used as a common material library for users.
▲Shake User Service Agreement (partial)
Not long ago, Vibrato acquired the British startup Jukedeck, which can use artificial intelligence to create music for automatic video scores. The Jukedeck website home page displays the following message: We will continue to use music artificial intelligence technology to motivate users’ creative abilities. If you can automate the soundtrack through artificial intelligence, this problem will be solved.
There are some music and texts in the Chinese Association, and the Chinese Writers Association can find the original author. Authorized by the original author.
There is a 444,000 playback video on YouTube “How to avoid copyright litigation in the process of using Facebook and Instagram”, in the video music blogger DrexFactor Poi recommends that you use a publicly copyrighted music site, such as Free Music Archive Epidemic Sound and Premium Beat are well known overseas. He said that creators can find music that is absolutely safe and compatible with the video atmosphere. He also reminds that the music on these websites will not always be authorized.
We sent a letter to one of the customer service staff of Epidemic Sound, a public copyright music platform, and asked two questions and received such a response:
1. Can I use these music in countries and regions around the world?
“We mainly target content creators on other platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, Instagram, etc.”
2. Can it be used commercially?
“If you want to use it for commercial activities, such as commercials or movies, then you need another type of authorization. I can contact the copyright owner for you. If you need it, please let us know your country/state.
If a third-party public copyright music platform can provide free resources, and can also act as an intermediary to help copyright owners and creators quickly establish contact, will it greatly facilitate the industry?
In addition, the minimum authorized unit of the music copyright website that we can retrieve at present is a song, and the short video is usually a fragment of a song because of its shortness. Does this also mean that some new forms of music copyright platforms have an opportunity. Will there be a smaller granularity of licensing in the future to reduce the cost of content creators and to make music products more versatile?
As the short video industry bid farewell to the barbaric growth period and become more mature, there will be a number of “first” legal disputes in the future, which will enhance the legal awareness of the industry and promote the development of the industry through case exposure in the public’s field of vision. The only way to do this is to avoid more “Jing Hanqing” by sharing and sharing together.
(Thanks to the lawyer of Lishan Law Firm Li Jun, senior lawyer Ma 66, an anonymous lawyer for professional advice and case)
References:
Handmade 耿, Jing Hanqing and other well-known bloggers are squatting trademarks! How to avoid “trademark hooligans”?
What is the first short video music infringement incident in China that brings reflection to the MCN industry?
Planning an article: Gu Gu
Chen Yang and Cui Xuan also contributed to this article.
If you are interested in this area, you can add the author to the WeChat (gugu10101) to identify yourself and discuss this topic with us.