| With the development of Internet economy and technology and the pursuit for traffics,network platforms and writers start to conduct “manuscript washing” so as to output text manuscripts at the least cost.In essence,manuscript washing is to embezzle the valuable core contents of others’ original manuscripts for “whitewashing” to avoid supervision of copyright holders and platforms.In practice,manuscript washing can be classified into three categories based on behavior type: word-sentence conversion,rhetorical device conversion and quotation conversion.According to the standards of abstract constituent elements,it can be classified into forward or reverse manuscript washing,manuscript washing for simple current affairs news or other content,and manual or technical manuscript washing.Manuscript washing is suspected of infringing on reputation and potential transaction opportunities,which may constitute damage to the authors’ rights.Owing to the property of“black box”,single technical standard and autonomous standpoint issues,technological means are difficult to undertake the responsibility of governing manuscript washing.Thus,it is essential to turn to more normative laws for relief.Based on the principle of “special law taking precedence over general law”,the regulation path of copyright laws should be first considered.The path of copyright laws,which cannot avoid the subjectivity of the identification of the infringement of manuscript washing works,has the problem of difficulty in distinguishing between “idea” and “expression” and subjectivity of “substantial similarity” judgment.The unstable connotation of “current news” may have led to the escape of “manuscript washing”.The root cause of the “substantial similarity” judgment lies in that the bounded rationality of judges cannot support their objectivity in using“abstraction-separation-comparison” method or holistic observation method for originality judgment from the author’s perspective.The shortcomings of copyright law have raised doubts in the courts about whether to apply rights law or behavioral law as the applicable law for regulating "manuscript washing".It is urgent to change copyright law or seek other path regulations to adapt to the new infringement behavior of “manuscript washing”.Manuscript washing can be regulated through comprehensive treatment inside and outside copyright law.Besides,the connotation of “manuscript washing” and its relationship with plagiarism should be clearly defined in copyright law.For practical considerations,courts should be allowed to make a certain degree of value judgment on the distinction between "thought and expression",but the necessity of setting objective standards should be clarified It is also essential to abandon “author-centralism”,turn to“reader’s perspective” to identify originality criteria,and distinguish the connotation of originality criteria based on characteristics of manual manuscript washing and artificial intelligence manuscript washing.Anti-unfair competition law,outside the copyright law,is the basic law of intellectual property law.With the same historical soil and value goal,the two can make up for the deficiency of copyright laws through advantages of flexible adjustment of behavioral regulation law.Commercial confusion can encompass manuscript washing behavior,and article 6 of anti-unfair competition law is applicable to realize supplementary regulation of manuscript washing. |
