Analysis On The Judgment Of Pc Game As Audiovisual Work

Personal Computer Game(PC Game), also known as computer game is essentially software that runs on a computer. In this article, unless otherwise stated, PC Game refers to the result of a computer program operates on the screen. Depending on the game platform, PC Game can be divided into single-player game and online game. With rapid development of internet technology today, and the raise of demand of material and cultural, and the investment of cultural industry, PC Game greatly develops. Game homogeneity phenomenon, however, is very serious. When a game gains a success, then there will be countless developers to emulate, in a short period of time there will be a large number of similar games, or simply to "change skin" of ready-made successfully game mode and rule, change the game’s characters and scene settings, looking like a whole new image of the game. Some developers do not want game players ignore the contact between the original by using similar names in the game, and developers will grandly "shanzhai" as a stunt. But the players don’t care whether “shanzhai” or not, so the "shanzhai" games also have markets. That is "go others’ road, and let others no way to go".The reason is that, video game is in a very awkward condition. Firstly, the essence of PC Game is software, however, similar games do not mean the infringement of software, because the particularity of code make others reconstruct games by using safe ways other than copying directly; secondly, the result of PC Game software after operation, namely the PC Game is not a kind of object under the Copyright Law, thus similar game cannot be claimed directly; thirdly, according to the judgment of similar games in China’s judicial practice, the court tend to regard PC Game as collective works, namely judging the infringement by defining work of fine art, musical work, written work separately. In this way, however, ignoring the integrity and consistency of the game, on the other hand the infringement is difficult to prove; Fourthly, the key of the game is the rule of game, the rule of the game is the one that throughout the course of the game, while it is also the key of success, however, it cannot be protected in a right way.In face of game homogeneity phenomenon, in order to prevent monopoly by the developers, the court tends to be prudent when judging the infringement of games by comparing the screenshots of the game separately during the past judicial practice. In this situation, even the two games are similar sensuously, as long as the screenshots of games are different, there would be no infringement. In this way, the creator cannot be protected sufficiently, while it is easy for copycat to avoid responsibility. Along with the popularization of internet and the intellectualization of mobile phone, the game industry develops rapidly with increasing “Shanzhai” phenomenon. The court gradually realized the importance of protecting the ideas of game, because rigid standard of infringing judgment would be bad for the protection of the creators, correspondingly, the tolerance of imitator would affect the atmosphere and the development trends of the whole game industry.In the judicial practice of foreign countries, like United States, Japan and other game industry developed countries, in addition to the regulation that computer game belongs to software work, there is practice that regarding the result of PC Game software as “audio-visual works”(as there is no concept of audiovisual works in China, audio-visual works refers to “Cinematographic works and works created by virtue of the analogous method of film production” in this article). There can be seen from the judicial practice that, if the computer games are regarded as audiovisual works, on one hand the integrity and consistency of the game can be focused on, while on the other hand, the limitation on the infringement judgment by judging separately can be avoided, to protect the interests of the game creators from the whole game perspective.From a computer game software running on the screen, some computer games can completely fulfill the requirement of copyright law for audiovisual works, on the one hand, it has high degree of originality and artistry, on the other hand, there are a lot of similarities with the audio-visual works, and many games with rich plot and luxuriant production has been adapted into a movie on the big screen. Therefore, regarding the computer game as audiovisual works is reasonable.This article is divided into three parts. The first part mainly discusses the characteristics and properties of computer games, and through the discussion of the particularity and complexity of computer games, current problems about the judgment on nature of PC Game would be put forward; The second part is a discussion from the perspective of comparative law, discussing the computer game as audiovisual works for recognition of the national law and the judicial practice, and comparing the current practice on the infringement of similar games, putting forward suggestions for reference; The third part mainly discusses the feasibility and necessity that regard the PC Game as audiovisual works, analyzes the condition of computer games constitute audiovisual works, and further discusses the way of thinking when judging the infringement from overall perspective while regarding the game as a whole.