On Copyright Protection Of Game Rules

The dichotomy of idea and expression as a basic principle of copyright law and the basic system,originated in the United Kingdom the focus of the work of the 17 th century to the legitimacy of property rights on the literary property debate over "permanent",now widely recognized by the national legislation and judicial practice.According to the principle of dichotomy of thought and expression,the copyright law only protects the expression without protecting the thought.Rules of the game because of the often is considered to belong to the category of thoughts,therefore,in judicial practice at home and abroad are often excluded from protection in copyright law,the game works copyright owners are only for the protection of anti-unfair competition law.Judicial practice in China has no precedent shall be protected by the law of the rules of the game,but in the hearth legend case court had to admit that the rules of the game are the originality and the rules of the game for the whole game works play a guidance role.This means that there is a change in the attribution of the works of the game rules in China’s judicial practice nowadays.The general idea of this thesis is: first,the case of "hearthstone legend" is the starting point of the study,and the case is summarized and the legal battle points are analyzed.Then,the author probes into the legal dispute point,and discusses it with foreign related jurisprudence.Finally,based on the theory of copyright law,the author reviews the case of hearthstone and puts forward some Suggestions on the legal application of the rules of the game.The main contents can be divided into the following three parts:The first part introduces the case,summarizes the basic situation of the case "hearthstone legend",and sums up the legal battle point of the case--can the game rules be protected by the copyright law? The protection of the copyright law of the game rules is divided into two modules: the work attribute identification of the game rules and the definition of the copyright protection scope of the game rules.The second part is to analyze and demonstrate the copyright of the game rules.The rules of the game that can be protected by copyright law should first describe the rules of how the player operates,rather than simply describing the rules that the player can do.Secondly,the rules of the game should be original,that is,the author’s content expression about the interactive operation of the players must reflect the unique selection and arrangement of others.Thirdly,the specific expression in the rules of the game should be separated from the abstract thought.The specific expression cannot be the universal expression that has entered the public domain,nor can it be expressed in accordance with the "mixed principle" or "scene principle";Finally,the expression of the rules of the game must be expressed in tangible form.In the third part,according to the copyright law,the author summarizes and analyzes the case of hearthstone,and then puts forward some Suggestions for the legal application of the same kind and related cases.According to the rules of the game can be expressed in the degree and the size of the source of reality existence rule as the basis,to express the rules of the game,the rules of the game is divided into reality limited original class rules of the game rules of the game,film and television works.According to different types of game rules,different methods are used to analyze and identify,so as to realize the realistic goal of protecting game rules reasonably.