A Study On The Legal Problems Of The Film And Television Works Adapted From The Network’s Best-selling Novels

With more and more writing works adapted into film and television works, network novels especially the network’s best-selling novels will be adapted into film and television works. Although there have been literature analyses of the phenomenon, it has not yet appeared analyses of the legal issues. Through empirical analysis, literature analysis and other methods, the author analyzes the copyright issues of the adapted film and television works of the ten best-selling novels online, and finds out the four problems. The study of those two questions will provide experiences to reduce legal disputes in the future during the process of exercise of rights. So there are five parts in this article.The first is the introduction of the problems. By searching the legal disputes of ten film and television works adapted from the ten network’s best-selling novels on China Judgements Online, the text finds out four common legal issues. One is that the copyright issues of the film and television works which are not authorized by the original author, and the two is the problems of right to network dissemination of information of film and television works which are adapted for legal authorization. The last two problems are the right of personality and merchandising right of the film and television works adapted from the network’s best-selling novels.The second part is the copyright issues of the film and television works which are not authorized by the original author. In practice, for similar works, we cannot judge that the work is the adaptation of the previous works just because the time difference. It should be considered comprehensively from the three aspects.The third part is the problems of right to network dissemination of information of film and television works which are adapted for legal authorization. According to the findings of the cases in practice, video sharing website operators, operators of Internet cafes, hotel managements of providing VOD services, and mobile client software developers are the four main subjects to infringing the right to network dissemination of information of the film and television works.The forth part is the problem of personal right of the film and television works adapted from the network’s best-selling novels.The fifth part is the problem of merchandising right of the film and television works adapted from the network’s best-selling novels. This right could be considered as a way to fill the legal gaps in protecting related rights of oblige.