Research On The Copyright Protection Of Live Videos Of Electronic Games On The Internet

Live videos of electronic games on the Internet have sprung up in recent years,which promote the growth of game industry and respond to the call of “mass entrepreneurship and innovation”.On the one hand,live videos of electronic games on the Internet develop rapidly.On the other hand,live videos of electronic games on the Internet face severe challenges of copyright infringement.Whether live videos of electronic games on the Internet develop healthily or not depends on whether live videos of electronic games on the Internet are protected by copyright law.The copyright issues of live videos of electronic games on the Internet include issues of object attribute,issues of subject of rights,issues of attributes of copyright and issues of fair use.Issues of object attribute of live videos of electronic games on the Internet and issues of fair use of live videos of electronic games on the Internet are the focus issues of controversy and difficult issues.Research on the copyright issues of live videos of electronic games on the Internet has theoretical significance and practical value.The introduction analyzes the reason and significance of the research,literature review about live video of electronic games on the Internet,research methods,innovations and insufficiency of this paper.The introduction introduces the opportunities and the challenges of live videos of electronic games on the Internet through the data and the diagram and provides perceptual materials for discussion.The first section of the paper analyzes issues of object attribute of live videos of electronic games on the Internet.The paper points out that original live videos of electronic games are works which can be protected by copyright,while live videos of electronic games which have no originality but have a certain degree of creativity are visual recordings which can be protected by neighboring rights.Meanwhile,the paper points out that live videos which fall short of a certain degree of creativity are neither works or visual recordings and can't be protected by copyright law.The second section of the paper analyzes issues of subject of rights of live videos of electronic games on the Internet.The paper holds that the subjects of rights of live videos of electronic games on the Internet differ in different cases.In the case of a live broadcast of an individual player,the copyright of live videos of electronic games on the Internet belongs to the player.In the case of a game event live broadcast,the copyright of live videos of electronic games on the Internet belongs to the organizer of the game event.Live broadcast platforms can acquire copyright through contract and become the subject of rights.The third section of the paper analyzes issues of attributes of copyright of live videos of electronic games on the Internet.This paper holds that live game broadcast on the Internet is non-interactive and real-time propagation means and can't be covered by broadcast rights,the right of communication through information network or the rights of fallback provisions in Article 10 of China's current Copyright Law.Therefore,the right to broadcast game videos on the Internet doesn't belong to broadcast rights,the right of communication through information network or the rights of fallback provisions in Article 10 of China's current Copyright Law.Because the right to play in revised draft of Copyright Law which is submitted for approval can cover live game broadcast on the Internet,the right to broadcast game videos on the Internet belongs to the right to play in revised draft of Copyright Law which is submitted for approval.The fourth section of the paper analyzes issues of fair use of live videos of electronic games on the Internet.When videos of electronic games are broadcast on the Internet,it is inevitable to use the computer program works of copyright owner,as well as cinematographic works or works created by virtue of the analogous method of film production,music works,art works,audio-visual recordings which are protected independently by copyright law in games.So live game broadcast on the Internet have an appearance of infringement of copyright.Whether the act of live game broadcast on the Internet is worth protecting or not depends on whether the act is fair use.In order to demonstrate the fair use issues of the act of live game broadcast,this paper adopts “the method of four factor analysis” in the U.S.A and “three-step analysis method” of Berne Convention.Besides,this paper puts forward the typed method: Reasonable commercial use and non-commercial use is fair use,but unreasonable commercial use is not fair use.Through further analysis,the paper points out that a live game broadcast of an individual player which belongs to reasonable commercial use or non-commercial use is fair use and doesn't infringe the copyright,but a big game event live broadcast which belongs to unreasonable commercial use is not fair use and infringes the copyright without the copyright owner's authorization.The fifth part of this paper points out the inadequacies of Copyright Law of China on protecting live videos of electronic games on the Internet and provides targeted suggestions.The paper points out that there are two disadvantages of Copyright Law of China on protecting the copyright of live videos of electronic games on the Internet: One disadvantage is that the copyright system of China's Copyright Law can't cover live game broadcast on the Internet,and the other disadvantage is that the closed legislative model of fair use of China's Copyright Law can not protect the copyright of live videos of electronic games on the Internet.In view of these problems,the paper puts forward three suggestions for reference.Firstly,the right to play in revised draft of Copyright Law which is submitted for approval should be confirmed when Copyright Law of China is revised for the third time to cover live game broadcast on the Internet.Secondly,legislators should change legislative model of fair use from closed model into open model and introduce judgement methods.Thirdly,the Supreme People's Court should specially promulgate instructive cases of live game broadcast on the Internet.