Analysis Of Copyright Issue Of Video Sharing Sites

Our growing need for network is closely connected with the springing up of video sharing sites and network technology advancement. Not only do we require network to meet our needs for study, but also we want it to satisfy our needs for entertainment. The video sharing sites which provide resource sharing service greatly satisfy various needs for network, which as a result results in the emerging of various video sharing sites as black horse in the network field, which enjoy high popularity among numerous netizens. However, the copyright owners of movie and TV drama, variety shows and other fields do not welcome the coming of the video sharing era. Numerous works appear on video sharing sites openly and legally without the authorization of the copyright owners, which infringes the copyright owners'legal right, which consequently results in quite a large wave of litigation of copyright by video sharing sites, which is dubbed as the "New Copyright" in the new era. Many problems arising from the gaming of the copyright owners and video sharing sites can not be well solved by the relevant laws in our country's existing legal system, the reason of which either lies in the misunderstanding of the existing law, or rest with the lagging of the existing law. In view of this, the thesis, with a case study of the litigation by the Marketing Corporation of China Film Group(CFG) on the infringing on its copyright by Ku6 (Beijing) Information & Technology Company Ltd., tries to make an analysis of some key issues in such kind of cases.The thesis is divided into four chapters as the following:Chapter 1 is a brief introduction of the case and its court verdict, and puts forward three disputable legal issues in the case.Chapter 2 focuses on the case study of the three legal issues put forward in the previous chapter. It first makes a brief introduction of the development of video sharing sites both at home and aboard; and then it moves on to give an overview of the copyright infringement issue resulted from video sharing, with a special focus on the differences between such cases and the traditional copyright infringement; finally, it comes to the focal point of the chapter, in which the author makes a detailed analysis of the disputable point of the two parties in the case and the verdict of the court.Chapter three is a summary of the above three key issues discussed in chapter 2. Between the choice of the principles of doctrine of no-fault liability and fault liability, the author thinks that the latter is the most reasonable criterion of liability suitable for the above infringement case. The "Safe Harbor" principle is a conditional asylum provided for video sharing sites. Only when they apply this principle appropriately can the video sharing sites get the legal protection. The compensatory damages principle alone cannot make sufficient restriction on the overflowing of copyright infringement by video sharing sites. Only when it is combined with punitive damages principle can we ban such kind of copyright infringement effectively.In chapter 4, the author brings out some suggestions for the solution of video sharing sites' copyright infringement from the two aspects of legislation and websites themselves.