On The Copyright Protection Of Sports Events Programs

Sports programs differ from the sports events programs. Generally, the images of the live broadcast or rebroadcast of sports events on televisions or network medias are selected and cut subjectively by directors and producers in television stations or network medias, instead of recording a whole event. Also, some information that is less possible to be obtained in the playing field would be displayed at the same time. Such these programs which basic content is sports event produced and broadcasted by broadcasting organizations, such as televisions or network medias, are normally called sports programs.Recently, the sports industry in China witnessed a flourishing development. As a result, the public pays much more attentions to sports events. However, as this rising trend, the piracy of sports programs is increasingly rampant. The organizer of a sport event enjoys the “arena rights” and may set conditions for others to enter the stadium to broadcast the event on the real time basis. But it cannot enjoy the original copyright or neighboring right of the sport event of the live broadcast by its charter. Under the Copyright Law in China, the sports programs are excluded from the scope of works. The key definition of whether a sports event is a work under the Copyright Law or not is to which extent it is originally produced. Nonetheless, there is still a controversy in academia about whether the originality of sports programs is as same as the cinematographic works and other works produced in similar ways. Additionally, the Copyright Law in China regulates the video producer’s right to protect video recordings with a lower originality and broadcast organization’s right to protect broadcast signal. Nevertheless, the regulations of these two rights under the Copyright Law are inadequate to protect sports programs, especially to prevent the conduct of unauthorized live broadcast of sports events online. The defect should be improved through the supplement of the relative provisions of video producer’s right and broadcasting organization’s right. This work will analyze the status quo of legal protection of sports programs in China and point out the main barriers and fundamental problems of copyright protection of sports programs through studying several related cases. In addition, it will compare the judicial experience in major countries and provide series of suggestions to promote the sports programs protection under the Copyright Law in China as well.The work includes four chapters. Chapter one clarifies the main matters in dispute in legal protection of sports programs through the comparison of the Case CCTV International Inc. v. Century Dragon Company on Information Network Transmission Right Infringement between the Case Sina Litigating Ifeng. There are three major aspects. First, whether the constitution is powerful to create the scope of intellectual property right. Second, whether the sports programs can be contained in the works in the sense of copyright law. Third, whether the broadcasting organization’s right is legal to cover the Internet.Chapter two analyzes the origin of rights of sports programs and ensures that constitution of sports event organizers cannot establish the rights in the scope of intellectual property right, the organizers do not have related rights of sports programs under copyright law unless the legislation founds special civil rights and neighboring right for them.Chapter three considers the originality of sports programs. The common law system and the civil law system are contrasted, then it summarize that China should abide by the dual structural system in the civil law system country. As a consequence, sports programs beyond the scope of works under the copyright law due to its limited originality. Thus, they should be regarded as video recordings to be protected by neighboring right.The final chapter puts forward some advices about how to improve the legal protection of sports programs, and the conduct of online live broadcast of sports events will be discussed in particular. The proposals aim at promoting the following three terms. Firstly, as to the rights of video recording producers, the scope of the TV broadcasting right and the right of dissemination via information networks should be adjusted. In term of broadcast organization’s right, it is advisable to increase its subject types and to legislatively delimitate the scope of rebroadcasting right. Last but not least, the Unfair Competition Law should be considered as a valuable supplement to protect sports programs.