Antitrust Regulations On Exclusive License Model Of Digital M Usic Copyright

With the rapid development of the Internet,the digital music market is booming.In order to deal with copyright issues such as piracy in the digital music market,the digital music market has produced a widely adopted copyright licensing model-the exclusive licensing model."Exclusive License" means a cooperation agreement between an online music platform and a record company,Record companies exclusively authorize music products to be auditioned or downloaded on designated platforms,which is a vertical merger of the industry chain.With the development and convergence of the music market,the scale of the music platform appears,A small number of large music platforms harvest a lot of exclusive resources for music copyright.China's digital music market is no longer a battle between genuine and piracy,It is the questioning and challenge of the legitimacy of competition among enterprises.From preventing and stopping monopolies,From the perspective of protecting the fair competition in the market,the intervention of the antitrust law is reasonable.The exclusive copyright authorization model is derived from the legal monopoly behavior resulting from the exclusive license of copyright.However,if the copyright is abused,the practice of excluding or restricting competition shall be regulated by the Antimonopoly Law.Because the traditional definition method is difficult to apply directly in the definition of the relevant market of digital music platforms,it needs to divide the market from multiple dimensions and multiple steps,such as the form of music distribution,upstream and downstream relationships,music technology services,and copyright transaction subjects.The exclusive licensing model for digital music copyright includes two aspects:First,exclusive licenses between record companies and music platform companies;Secondly,unilateral sublicense or mutual sublicense between music platform companies.The former exclusive authorization model may involve illegal judgments of vertical non-price monopoly agreements;the latter's unilateral or mutual authorization may involve abuse of market dominance such as refusal to trade,ultra-high pricing,and additional unreasonable trading conditions.Prior to the analysis of illegality,it is particularly critical to analyze the relevant markets under the digital music copyright exclusive license model.The division of the relevant markets is a prerequisite for subsequent antitrust analysis.Furthermore,the determination of the market dominance of the relevant market is also a necessary step.Different from the traditional market dominance determination,in a more complicated Internet environment,the degree of control of the digital music market by record companies and music platforms,market share,the number and quality of music libraries on market dominance,Factors such as dynamic changes and potential market entrants should also be taken into consideration in market dominance.Further,among the typical abuses of market dominance listed in Article 17 of China's"Antitrust Law",whether the exclusive licensing model of digital music copyright from high price transfer,refusal to trade,and differential treatment involve abuse of market dominance Perform analysis and judgment.Based on the dual effect of the exclusive licensing model of digital music on competition,when exclusive licensing involves the determination of the illegality of a monopoly agreement,it should also apply reasonable principles and integrate all factors to analyze whether it has a substantial effect of eliminating or restricting competition.The considerations for the exemption system of the monopoly agreement need to be examined from the perspective of efficiency defense and competition defense.Based on the current status of China's digital music copyright market and the practice of antitrust regulation of exclusive copyright authorization,combined with relevant overseas experience,this article proposes antitrust regulations for the"exclusive licensing model" of digital music copyright in China.First,antitrust enforcement agencies should adopt a lenient and strict attitude towards the exclusive licensing model of digital music copyright.Second,it is recommended to reform the market share ratio and calculation method under the Internet economy.Finally,it is recommended to enumerate the provisions from Article 14 of the Antitrust Law and the " The Interim Provisions on the Prohibition of Monopoly Agreements added two aspects of the Safe Harbor Rules to improve the anti-monopoly legal provisions of vertical non-price monopoly agreements.