Category Archives: Non-litigation

How to Protect Your Works When AI Lowers the Barrier to Film Creation to Zero

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(By You Yunting) The recent AI-generated Chinese short drama Huo Qubing has gone viral. Reportedly, the computing production cost was a mere 3,000RMB, yet it racked up massive views. A friend asked me: “Can I charge for this video since it’s entirely generated by AI?” My response: “Certainly, it can be offered for a fee. However, under the Copyright Law, works generated entirely by AI are generally ineligible for copyright protection. If someone else uses this video to charge fees, you may have no legal recourse to stop them.” Therefore, to secure enforceable rights, creators must proactively embed protectable intellectual property (IP) or personality rights into their video as an “IP moat”.

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How Will NVIDIA’s Purchase of Pirated Content to Train AI Be Characterized Under Chinese Law?

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(By You Yunting) Recently, a lawsuit filed by U.S. copyright holders against NVIDIA for allegedly using pirated materials to train AI models has attracted significant public attention. According to the complaint, in order to quickly obtain more than 500 terabytes of data, NVIDIA proactively contacted the pirate website Anna’s Archive and paid hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars to download a large volume of pirated content, including copyrighted books and articles.

Anna’s Archive is one of “shadow libraries” known for their decentralized and anonymous nature, most of which typically provide access to literature in a way that infringes upon its copyright. If the plaintiffs’ allegations are true, it will be a serious blemish on the reputation of NVIDIA, the world’s most valuable company, to have paid a pirate website for content and then been sued by copyright holders. However, the unauthorized use of training data can be considered the “original sin” of nearly all general AI companies. In both China and the United States—the two global leaders in AI technology, numerous lawsuits concerning AI training data have already emerged. We will discuss whether, under Chinese law, NVIDIA’s alleged conduct will be considered breach of law.

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How to Appropriately Deal with a Lawyer Letter- about Copyright

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(By Xiong Leizhi) Some popular We Chat accounts recently received a lawyer letter about copyright infringement from a well-known picture library. Before that some We Media were sued for picture infringement. Content creators are in trouble since 2015 when capital flooded in and proceeds surged. In the circumstances where start-ups abound and the gross national attention remains constant, each start-up tries to attract customers quickly and keep their interest for a long time. However, it takes much time to create an original piece of content. As a result, increasingly more unauthorized copies of works appear. The above cases that recently happened arose out of infringement.

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Why It Is Difficult to Protect Copyrights in Live-Show Platforms in China?

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(By You Yunting) Some users of ZHIHU.com (One of the most well-organized community for sharing knowledges online) asked: Would the network host infringe any right while singing at his or her own live-show room? If one host receives the user contributions from the audiences for his or her singing at such live-broadcast room, would such behavior infringe any right? Here come my answers:

The biggest problem of the hosts’ singing at their own live-show rooms is not about whether such behaviors infringe any right or not. Instead, the right holders of such songs have tremendous difficulties in protecting their rights.

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What Startups Need to Know to Protect Their IPR in China

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 (By You Yunting) I was once asked by a journalist what the foundation of intellectual property  courts and the ratification of the Opinions on Quicker Development of the Globally Influential Scientific and Technological Innovation Center matter to small and medium-sized startups, and replied the outcome of those two events were the same, both of which ultimately aimed to enhance the awareness of intellectual property throughout our society and guide small and medium-sized enterprises to establish a competition barrier and a management philosopher on how to avoid infringing others’ intellectual property rights. As governmental authorities define and set official instructions and policies, each startup should take full use of its intellectual property during daily operation, trying to become positioned to succeed, just like a well-known Chinese aphorism says that even the pig can fly when the typhoon comes. Combined with my experiences, this article mainly deals with the issue of how small and medium-sized startups seek intellectual property protection both internally and externally.

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DeBund Succeeds in Pushing Copycat Game App from AppStore

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Recently, DeBund takes a big step forward in providing mobile internet legal services that You Yunting Team, on behalf of clients, succeeds in pulling a popular game from the AppStore by more than 10 lawyer’s letters.

The Developer of the complained game copied large amounts of background elements of a well-known game, including graphic design, plots, role names and geographic names, and also used the brand of the original game. The Developer also made a cartoon modeling on the game characters, and did a slight change to the game name, not exactly the same as the original game. The infringed benefits greatly from the complained game to millions of yuan every month.

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Does Unauthorized Use of Screenshots in Game Guide Constitute Infringement?

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(By You Yunting) A game guide, also known as game strategy guide, is an essential reference for players. Generally, a game guide may quote pictures and screens from the game itself. But if without authorization, it triggers questions whether this quotation causes copyright infringement. In the following, a similar case will be introduced.

Introduction to the Case:

Plaintiff: Shanghai Aurogon Information and Technology Co., Ltd (the “Aurogon”)

1st Defendant: China Zhongdian Media Co., Ltd (the “ZD Media”)

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Qvod Vs China Government: RMB 260 million Punitive Fine for Copyright Infringement?

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(By You Yunting) Introduction to the Case:

Plaintiff: Shenzhen Qvod Technology Co., Ltd (the “Qvod”)

Defendant: Market Supervision Administration of Shenzhen Municipality (the “MSA”)

Court of first instance: Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court

The MSA filed a case with the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court, and claimed to cancel the punitive fine of RMB 260 million from the MSA. On 30th of December 2014, the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court held the trial as the case is still on that trial.

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What is the Procedure When It Comes to the Registration of Imported Software in China?

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(By Wang Ting and You Yunting) Today we will discuss the legal restrictions and application procedures in regard to the introduction of foreign software into China.

  1. Copyright Protection of Imported Software

The Protection of Computer Software Regulations dividends the protection of imported foreign software into two types:

  • Software first distributed within the territory of China shall have copyright;
  • Software concluded with China by the countries to which the creators belong or in which the creators reside habitually or under the international conventions to which China is a member state shall enjoy its copyright.

China has concluded the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works with more than a hundred countries in the world. Taking that into consideration, under most circumstances if the requirements above can be met, the creator of the introduced software can cite the convention to gain copyright protection which is equal to Chinese citizens.

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Youku Steals the Originality, How Can the Student Fight Against Plagiarism?

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追气球的熊孩子

(By You Yunting) A post named the Teenagers Cannot Be Bullied was made by a 19-year-old student to complain that Youku.com ripped off his idea, causing a big stir online. The 19-year-old student and his fellows succeeded in taking photos of the earth from flying a hot-air balloon and then published their experience named the Kids Who Chase the Balloon and photos online. Afterwards, staffs from Youku.com contacted him, saying that they would like to address a short video to write down their behaviors. Then they reached an agreement through emails that the 19-year-old student and his fellows would cooperate with Youku.com in making a creative short video from the post the Kids Who Chase the Balloon.

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Does Tudou.com Require Permission for the Use of YYeTs’ Unauthorized Subtitle Translation in China?

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(By You Yunting) YYeTs is one of fansub groups in China, which translated foreign films and television program and subtitled into a language other than that of the original by fans (not officially licensed translator). YYeTs have translated many foreign films and television programs and developed very fast in China.

Recently,  YYeTs claimed that, as Tudou.com used, without permission, YYeTs’ subtitle translation for the video of the Voice and deleted the names of translator, YYeTs tried to negotiate with Tudou.com but was blamed for illegal translation. That raised a question: without the permission of the right holder for the Voice, could YYeTs’ translation receive protection from the Copyright Law?

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Introduction to Ownership of the Performer’s Right in China

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(By Luo Yanjie) As China recently ratified the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances, in today’s post, we will introduce the system and cases of the performers’ rights in the Copyright Law. As for who holds the performer’s right, different judgments will be found through three cases. Who holds the performer’s right? The performer, the company/organizationthat hires the performer, or the performing company/organization? These different judgments can become an obstacle for the further development of China’s performing arts.

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Why Did NCA Officials Attend Sohu.com’s Press Conference against Toutiao.com?

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(By You Yunting) Recently, Sohu vs Toutiao has attracted attention from the media. Sohu sued Toutiao for copyright infringement and unfair competition, whilst Toutiao filed lawsuits against Sohu for defamation. It is quite normal for two enterprises in competition to take legal proceedings against each other. However, what really surprised us was, in their dispute, that governmental officials attended Sohu’s press conference, in favor of Sohu. In today’s post, we will discuss the reason for theimproper governmental interference. Comments and suggestions are most welcome.

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Is It Illegal for the SARFT to Prohibit Installing Youku and Iqiyi in Internet Cable Box?

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广电总局

Is It Illegal for the SARFT to Prohibit Installing Youku and Iqiyi in Internet Cable Box?

–Analysis on the Prohibition of Installing Youku App and Iqiyi App on the Internet Cable Box

(By You Yunting) According to some media reports, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (the ”SARFT”) issued a rule to local administrations requesting to delete Youku App, Iqiyi App, Sohu App and browsers from Wasu Box and Internet cable Set-top boxes (the “boxes”), which enables users to support TV, games, online video, music and photos. At first glance, i was astonished how it could be called boxes if without Youku App, Iqiyi App and browsers. However, Hangzhou Wasu Digital TV Media Group confirmed receiving the rule shortly after the reports came out. That being the condition, we would like to analyze the rule.

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Traditional Media shall Enhance Themselves against Internet Infringement

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(By You Yunting) According to news media’s reports, the National Copyright Administration of China (the “NACA”), State Internet Information Office (the “SIIO”), Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (the “MIIT”) and the Ministry of Public Security (the “MPC”) recently initiated the 10th special campaign dubbed “Sword Net Action” against online piracy and infringement, centered on cracking down on some websites’ unauthorized reprint from traditional media. This “Sword Net Action” could be better for traditional media, but governmental action gradually has different stages. Traditional media must improve practicing skills in the legal campaign against new Internet media.

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