Key Points that Performers Should Know When Protecting Themselves from Internet Portrait Right Infringement

(By Lv Xuanxuan and Sun Yinuo) Back in September 2020, Beijing Internet Court published “Rules on Hearing and Deciding Internet Portrait Right Cases” (“Rules”) stating that unauthorized use of a person’s portrait in an advertorial should be deemed as infringement; unauthorized use of a recognizable portrait should be deemed as infringement; the popularity of the person in the portrait is important to calculate the amount of damages; false endorsement will result in more liabilities; and legal and reasonable use of portraits should not be deemed as infringement. According to statistics, the number of portrait right infringement cases, mostly connected with portraits of well-known public figures, especially celebrities in areas of entertainment, ranked immediately below the number of internet copyright infringement cases. Infringement of portrait right of “performers” in areas of entertainment is common. This article gives performers some advice on how to protect their rights in internet portrait right infringement cases to help them claim rights in an appropriate way and seek reasonable and effective remedies.

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How to Judge the Copyright Holder of Musical Works

 (By Luo Yanjie) Previously, we introduced how to determine the copyright holder of cinematographic works, and today we would like to continue by introducing how to determine copyright ownership of musical works. Similar to cinematographic works, we have confronted situations in infringement cases in which it is difficult to determine the copyright holder of musical work. For example, in one case the copyright conducted in mainland China was licensed by an overseas rights holder, but the name in the signed and issued license was different from what was written on the original CD. Although the issue might have come from a mistake in the translation, it still created a real obstacle for the rights holder. Now, let’s take a look on the way to determine the copyright holder of musical work in China.

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