Tag Archives: derivative work

Why China Court Protects Violation Against GPL License Agreement?

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(By You Yunting) We could find no regulation in China’s Copyright Law and Regulation on the Protection of Computer Software with regard to the open source software. In a dispute judged by Haidian People’s Court in the 1st instance and Beijing No.1 Intermediate People’s Court in the 2nd instance, though both courts determined the validity of the open source agreement, they supported those violating the GNU GPL as failed in disclosing newly added source code could claim the copyright over the new work. To our understanding, the case, on the  one hand, had showed the pragmatism of China courts, and on the other hand, it also demonstrated that the open source software organization is necessarily to be seen in the right protection on the OSS software.

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Beijing Love Story Is Confirmed as a Cooperative Work

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(By Albert Chen) Recently, the Beijing Xicheng People’s Court made its decision on the dispute over copyright ownership of Beijing Love Story (“Story”) between Li Yaling and Chen Sichen, confirming that the Story was a cooperative work and that Li held copyright rights over it. After the Court’s decision, Li stated she would take the lawsuit a step further to invalidate the copyright transfer contract made unilaterally by Chen.

Although the author has certainly not seen the contents of the verdict, and the outlook on Li’s appeal to have the contract invalidated is pessimistic, to some extent, Li has already fulfilled her rights protection goals. At the same time, this case also serves as a reminder for other creators of TV series to pay more attention to copyright ownership and protection.

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Copyright Issues behind Disputes on Beijing Love Story

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By Albert Chen

The popular TV drama Beijing Love Story (the “Story”) has become the hot topic of  social discussion. The discussion was triggered about with whom the copyright  ownership of the story resides, on which both editors Chen Sicheng and Li Yaling claimed the right over it.  Chen planned to shoot a film of the Story which Li was against, with the reason that any licenses of the works shall have to go through her approval and that she will have to be paid  remuneration. With the  escalation of the dispute, both parties seek the settlement through legal ways.

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Parody on Copyrighted Works Could Be Infringement? II

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the poster of the parodic World of Warcraft

By Albert Chen

II. Is it necessary infringing of parody?

Just like analyzed above, the “transformative use” may be the re-creation basing on the ideas, and also could be the re-creation relying on the “expression”. Therefore, the infringement of parody could not be determined in general and should be considered in situations.

1. The parody with transformative use of idea

The basic principle of Copyright Law is to protect the expression while such protection will not extend to the idea which is not detailed by the expression. Surely, there has regulated no specific standard or border between the abstract of idea and the concrete of expression, and that makes the judgment depend on the case analysis.

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