Research On Copyright Protection Of Video Games

With the development of Information technology and the Internet economy,the output value of the computer game industry has leaped to the first place in the entertainment industry.Other secondary game market,such as Video game live,E-sports is also growing rapidly.Driven by huge economic interests,the interests of the relevant subjects are increasingly fierce,the legal disputes surrounding copyrights are increasing,the litigation targets of travel-related cases are gradually increasing,and the social impact of the judgment results is also increasing.However,due to the complexity of computer games and the particularity of industrial development,the legal circles and judicial practice have not formed a unified understanding of the attribute of copyright object and rights of video games.The statutory principle of intellectual property requires that the object,subject and ownership of the claim for protection and the content of the right should be determined under the current copyright law.Therefore,China has long adopted the mode of "split protection" for the copyright of video games,that is to say,split the game into the existing object stipulated in the copyright law,such as computer software,art works,text works,etc.Then,the parts that do not constitute the object of copyright will be removed,and the constituent elements of the infringement are separately compared for different objects.It will lead to the following results: prolonged litigation cycle,increased difficulty in proof,reduced cost of infringement.At the same time,it neglects the integrity of video games,narrows the scope of copyright protection,and tends to imitate the later works in the interest balance of the game industry,which is contrary to the legislative purpose of copyright law to encourage and stimulate literary and artistic creation and dissemination.This paper deeply studies the status quo of video game copyright protection and finds out the shortcomings.It is concluded that the "overall protection" model is superior to the "split protection",through in-depth analysis of the copyright protection of computer games in different countries,the essential characteristics of computer games and the actual development of the game industry.Thirdly,this paper analyzes the path of copyright protection of video games under the overall protection mode one by one,and finds out the shortcomings,and then proposes that video games as an independent object of copyright protection is an effective solution,and demonstrates its necessity and feasibility.On this basis,suggestions for the construction of corresponding legislation and protection system are proposed,the legal definition,content,subject and ownership,adjacent right,judgment of infringement and protection of technical measures of the new copyright object are systematically discussed.It also gives analysis and suggestions for difficult and complicated problems in practice.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,this paper has four major parts,from Chapter 2 to Chapter 5 in a logical progressive way to make a detailed discussion:Chapter 2,"The Dilemma of Video Game Copyright Protection",focuses on the analysis of the existing problems of video game copyright protection.Based on the complexity of computer games,the connotation of video games is defined from three aspects: function definition,main classification and essential characteristics.It also analyzes its fundamental attributes,the reasons for the rapid development of the industry,the focus of the interest struggle and the focus of copyright protection.After that,this paper continues to sort out the legal issues related to the development of the computer game industry,comprehensively analyzes the various dimensions of copyright protection and the protection path under different dimensions,and finds out the deficiencies of existing copyright protection,mainly includes the limitation of institutional bottlenecks,the limitation of administrative protection,the contradiction of criminal judicial protection,and the lack of leading role of civil judicial protection,it is concluded that protection mode selection is the key to solve the copyright protection problem of video games.Chapter 3,"Differentiation and Analysis of Copyright Protection Models of Video Games",focuses on the two modes of "overall protection" and "split protection" of copyright,in order to find out a more conducive mode of copyright protection of video games in China.In this chapter,first of all,the copyright protection of the United States,Japan and other copyright and game industries are more developed countries are analyzed,and then come to the conclusion that "overall protection" is more universal and in line with the law of development of the protection model.After that,this chapter compares and demonstrates the dialectical relationship between the whole and the part,the legislative purpose of the copyright law,the judicial practice and the development status of the industry,and carries out the current path under the overall protection mode,including the protection of computer software works,multimedia works,compilation works,audio-visual works and so on.Argumentation,find out the shortcomings and put forward the hypothesis that video games should be protected as an independent object of copyright.Chapter 4,"The Significance of Setting Up a Type of Copyright Object for Computer Games",focuses on the necessity and feasibility of video games as a separate type of copyright object.It mainly discusses the development of the statutory principle of intellectual property rights,the modernization of intellectual property law,the object expansion of copyright law,and the review requirements of copyright objects.And mainly analyzes the process and reasons of the film works to obtain the status of copyright object,in order to provide a useful reference for the status of video game object.Chapter 5 "Legislative Proposals and System Construction as an Independent Object of Copyright Protection" is the core content of this article.In this chapter,a relatively complete exposition of the video game in the form of legislation as a new object of copyright legal system construction.In this chapter,the definition of copyright law is given for "video game works".The content of copyright,such as publishing right and adaptation right,the subject of game works and the ownership of rights,adjacent rights,and the judgment rules of copyright infringement are discussed in detail.Based on the characteristics of game works,the special applicable rules and suggestions are put forward.The copyright protection of video games is a frontier issue in the theoretical research and judicial practice of copyright law.It is urgent for legal workers to construct a systematic legal system to clarify the relevant legal issues and give judicial suggestions.This paper discusses the related issues in this field comprehensively,and puts forward some suggestions on the construction of a relatively complete legislative and protection system,hoping to provide useful thinking and solutions to the path of reference for the healthy development of video game industry under the protection of copyright.