Research On Copyright Protection Boundaries Of Virtual Characters

In recent years,IP,like cartoon characters of Disney,is so popular that it has brought huge economic benefits to copyright owners.Chinas copyright law does not include the category of virtual characters in the types of works protected.But with the economic value of virtual characters becoming prominent and the number of virtual character copyright dispute cases increasing,the judicial practice has provided a channel for virtual characters in copyright.However,this protection is out of legal interpretation rather than legislation.How to determine the protection elements of virtual characters in copyright and determine their unified protection boundaries has become the key to achieving fairness and justice in each case.In American law,Congress has not put virtual characters in legislation,but decades of jurisprudence provide clear standards for the protection of virtual characters under American law.This article will mainly introduce the protection standards of virtual characters formed by American case law,and will propose some suggestions for China's judicial practice.First,this article will define the categories of virtual characters and analyze why copyright law should be chosen for protection.Proceeding from the dichotomy principle of thought and expression,the paper puts forward the question of whether the virtual role belongs to thought or idea,and then introduces the viewpoint of delimiting thought and idea.Secondly,this article seeks legal explanation for the virtual characters copyright protection from legislations,and analyzes the judicial practice about protecting the virtual character,and summarizes the lack and differences of existing protection standards.Thirdly,this article will introduce the protection standards and new developments of American case law.In order to provide copyright protection for virtual characters,US case law formed "character delineation test" and "the story being told test".Due to the low operability of character delineation test,the strictness of the story being told test and characters' development,US case law formed "extrinsic and intrinsic test" and "three-part test".These expand the scope of copyright protection of virtual characters protectable elements.Finally,on the basis of various standards of US case law,this article proposes the application of "the story being told test" to literary characters and the "three-part tset" to visual characters.And this article also propose that the standard of literary characters and visual characters should be different.