On The Copyright Of Network Works And Its Civil Law Protection

The internet, which is based on the high-speed development of microelectronics and information technology, is called virtual world or virtual circumstances. Its appearance changes not only the traditional way of information spreading and circulating but the lifestyle, concepts of the survival and values and the economic operation model as well. While challenging human society, network activities challenge the jurisprudence which is used to maintain and adjust the natural order of human survival and development. With the rapid development of the latest information and digit-based high technology, the range of different kinds of works (literature, pictures, music, films and videos) transmitting through Internet is largely expanded. On the one hand, the rapid development of the Internet not only promotes the progress of society, on the other hand, it brings a series of problems in many fields. The protection of network works copyright is one of those problems which are greatly influenced.The article consists of three parts.The first part of the article analyzes network works and their copyright. Here the author explains the concept, features and ascription of network works. Network works refer to the works that appear on the Internet and are accorded with the Copyright Law in the fields of literature, art and science. They change traditional form of information such as words, digit, graphs, pictures and sound into the form of digital signals, that is, the form that appears in the process of organizing, reproducing and saving the information using binary codes containing only 0 and 1. Compared with traditional model, network works have a stronger transitivity, can be copied faster and changed easily. It can be produced quickly and erased in a split second. It changes certain features of traditional works. It is more intangible, less regional and less proprietary, which is a development of the traditional works. This part also introduces the concept, features and contents of network works copyright and the question of the ascription of the works related to network works copyright and the right for the works to be digitalized. On all accounts the copyright of the network works, regardless of the works directly typed into the computer or those existed in a changed form after being digitalized, belongs to the original author himself. The contents of the original works are not changed, and what is really changed is only the storage medium, which will not affect the ascription of copyright. According to judicial interpretation of the Supreme Court, the digital rights that come out in the process of digitalizing network works can be presumed to belong to the author himself. I have different opinions about this. I believe that the right of digitalizing network works should not be the specific right of the author. The process of digitalizing network works, in which pure scanning and typing of words are adopted to input the works into the computer using binary codes and are shown on the Internet, is only an act of copying. It is not the act of translating. According to Copyright Law term 32, network works are allowed to be used by other people, but they have to pay for them.The second part of the article discusses the type of tort of the network works copyright. The specific behaviors that appear only in network circumstances are expatiated, for instance, upload and download acts of the BT users, acts of supplying the internet service provider ISP, acts of designing the web pages, acts in the hyperlink, How to cognizance the network works copyright tort acts in the complex environment etc. Several types of acts that can be directly identified as the tout of network works are also introduced here, for example, the tort of signature right, the act of plagiarism on the on the Internet and so on.Network circumstances are always changing greatly, and tort may occur at any time and may disappear instantly. Preventing and punishing the network works tort is the key of our study. That is how we use the legal weapons to guard the social justice in the realm of the computer network. The third part of the article discusses the lack of protection of network works copyright and the perfects of legislation under Civil Law. The contents of the legal documents about the protection of network works copyright are still not unified. The grade of force effect of civil legislation is not high and the legal protection system in Civil Law still remains insufficient. China's existing provisions of the copyright of networks in Copyright Law is not detailed. The legal provisions need to be perfected about the problems related to civil subjects'copyright of network works such as protection scope, tort scope, the type of tort, the standards of civil compensation, the legal liability of tort subject etc. All of these need our further effort to establish a unified system of legal protection. At the aspect of increasing the legal norms, the author suggests that we consider expanding the scope of Statutory Permission, restricting the provisions of Authorization Permission, adding no-fault liability of the network service providers and so on. Under the premise of legal protection, strive for the balance of interests between people who own the copyright and the users of the copyright, so as to furthest realize the value of intellectual achievements.