Study On Online Game Bot Software Copyright Infringement

Online game bot software changes the normal operation of online games,breaks the balance of the game environment,results in the loss of players and shorten the life of the game,which greatly damages the legitimate rights and interests of the game owner,and hinders the game industry healthy development in the long run.So it is necessary to forbid the bots.Production,sales and use of bots is closely related with the online game software program,which leads to the issues of copyright infringement.This paper distinguishes different bots and bots behaviors,analyzes and judges whether or not the act of making,selling and using bots constitutes copyright infringement and puts forward legal advice to regulate game bots from the perspective of copyright law.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,this paper consists of the following three chapters:The first chapter clarifies the definition and operation principle of online game bots,and puts forward the copyright issues involved in the bots.A bot refers to the independent software that is able to change the operation of online games and to affect online games.Bots usually affect the game running state by copying or modifying the composition of the game software,which leads to the external copyright infringement disputes,including two issues: first,whether the bots infringe the copyright of the game owner,the second is which kind of specific rights the bots actions infringe to.In view of the different viewpoints of these two issues,this paper has summarized the main points.The second chapter analyzes and judges whether the bots behaviors violate the copyright.Reproduction or alteration of the game data does not infringe the copyright of the game software,because the game data is not the object protected by the copyright law,while only reproduction or alteration of the game program by the bots will constitute infringement.The production of “independent bots” requires to copy too much game client program,it will infringe the game software copyright;“Dependent bots” and the game software are not substantially similar to each other,so the production of “dependent bots”will not infringe the right of reproduction of game software.The use of “independent bots” is equivalent to use of pirated software,commercial use of it will violate the game software owner's right of reproduction.The “temporary copy” occurring when players use the“dependent bots”does not equals to reproduction in the sense of copyright,which dose not infringe the game software owner's reproduction right.But the use of “dependent bots”to modify the game program will infringe the right of modification of the game software.The use of bots to damage or circumvent the anti-bot technological measures included in the online games shall not be always recognized as infringement.The actions of destroying the anti-bot measures and providing such bots shall constitute secondary infringement only when the anti-bot measures destroyed or circumvented are “copyright protection measures”.The actions otherwise shall be ruled as illegal actions when those anti-bot measures are“access control measures”.In the third chapter,the paper puts forward some legal suggestions on how to restrict the bots.The mode of alteration by using bots to alter the game software is different from the traditional way of alteration,which is a new “dynamic”alteration mode.So in the legislative respect,the content of the right of alteration to software works shall be changed.The right of alteration shall be changed into the right of deduction and the content of this right shall be enlarged so that the“dynamic”alteration by bots could be clearly under the control of the right.Focused on the destruction or circumvention of the anti-bot technical measures to online games,it is significant to improve the relevant provisions on technical measures in the Copyright Law.To destroy the copyright technological measures or to provide such tools or services shall be respectively recognized as infringement or illegal actions based on distinction of the technical measures with different natures.Different bots and different bot actions will lead to different legal results.At the judicial level,it should strictly distinguish different bots and bot actions,and determine the perpetrator bear different legal responsibilities according to different circumstances.The similarity between the bot software and the game software is the key to judge the copyright infringement of bot actions.Therefore,in the judicial practice,it is essential to refer to other county's method on how to judge the software program is substantially similar to another one,and adhere to the principal of combination of “literal infringement”and “non-literal infringement”,and apply “SSO”test and “AFC”test method to determine the decision,in order to strengthen the study on software program substantial similarity.By classification of different bot actions,this paper analyzes the issues on online game bot software infringement and tries to answer the two questions that “whether the bots infringe the copyright of the game owner and which kind of specific rights the bots actions infringe to”.On the basis of the infringement analysis,this paper puts forward some legal suggestions for restricting the bots,so as to provide feasible reference for forbidding the online game bots,protect the interests of the game owners and promote the healthy development of the online game industry.