Copyright Protection Of TV Program Formats In China

With the rapid development of cultural industry,TV program format,as a new cultural object,has become more and more active on the platform of world cultural trading market in recent years.TV programs in mainland of China started late.Recently,China has also introduced a large number of program formats which have promoted the diverse development of TV shows.However,large amount of TV program format transactions also produce a lot of infringement problems.How to protect the rights of TV program format is always a crucial problem that creators and judicial judges concerned about,and also an urgent problem need to be solved.Restricted by the “Idea-Expression Dichotomy”,the TV program formats have been excluded from the scale of copyright law.Throughout the world,China and most of countries do not have clear regulations on the TV program format so that the trend of plagiarism is becoming more and more intense.In order to compete for ratings,domestic TV market has also introduced some foreign layouts and rearranged them with local factors.Some programs are suspected for plagiarism.Plagiarism refers to such kind of action,which producers product programs highly similar to the original program without right holder's consent and fees for copyright.This kind of action not only infringes producer's economic interests also the healthy and orderly development of TV cultural industry.How to solve the increasingly prominent contradictions has become an unavoidable problem arousing people's attention in academic and practical circles.So far,the legal protection of TV program formats in China is still in a state of ambiguity.In contrast,although the common law system and the civil law countries haven't defined it clearly,they have begun to explore the TV program formats protection system.Some international organizations are also constantly striving to provide some legal advice or avenues for the legal protection of it.The legal vacancy in the copyright protection of TV program formats is the primary cause of plagiarism.In view of this phenomenon,this paper,based on the actual situations of our country and the practices and experience of other countries,attempts to explore a more reasonable and effective way of TV program format copyright protection.On this basis,the author puts forward some reasonable suggestions for the chaos and frequently accused situation of TV programs in copyright introduction field.Theory and practice are important basis for exploring and analyzing problems.This paper mainly discusses the copyright protection of TV program formatthrough literature research and case analysis.The article is divided into five parts.First,through researching the domestic and foreign materials,the paper begins with the definition of TV program format,then briefly introduces its development process,and the purpose and significance of giving it copyright protection.Second,based on domestic and foreign cases and scholars' research results,this article elaborates and analyzes the current dilemma of copyright protection of TV program format.Furthermore,it focuses on the analysis of the object and characteristics of copyright protection,supplemented by theoretical basis,then draws a conclusion that the TV program format conforms to these requirements and it should be protected.In addition,through researching and analyzing foreign judicial practices,it finds some experience which can be learned.Finally,the author tries to come up with some methods about how to improve the copyright protection of TV program format in China,thus creates a better situation and promote the good development of TV industry in our country.