Hotspot · Analysis

Looking at the Legal Risks Behind Short Drama's Explosion

On the third day of the New Year, an online mini drama "I became a stepmother in the 1980s" was launched on the Tiktok platform, which became popular overnight. The platform shows that the drama only took 10 days to shoot and a post production investment of 80000 yuan. The first day recharge exceeded 20 million yuan, and the discussion about the short drama also surged. Among them, the legal risk prevention and control after the short drama became popular is also a key focus of attention.

The micro drama market has developed rapidly in recent years. On November 15, 2023, the State Administration of Radio and Television announced that it will take multiple measures to continue the governance of micro dramas. On January 26, 2024, the 2024 New Year boutique mini drama promotion meeting was held, and 16 boutique mini dramas launched during the Spring Festival were recommended.

At present, due to the uneven content and mixed industry ecology of online short dramas, the governance work of the State Administration of Radio and Television is also ongoing. In this context, compliance management and risk prevention within the short drama industry are also particularly important. This article will explore the common legal risks of online short dramas from the following three perspectives:

Firstly, there is a risk of infringement in the promotion of short dramas. The broadcast channels of short dramas are often spread through the internet, inevitably requiring promotion through online platforms, which may lead to issues with the use of fonts in poster production. Based on the consideration of promotional effectiveness, in order to attract consumers, the usage rate of free fonts in posters is much lower than that of paid fonts. According to Article 3 of the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China, "The works referred to in this Law refer to intellectual achievements that are original and can be expressed in a certain form in the fields of literature, art, and science, including: (4) works of art and architecture." Article 4 of the Implementation Regulations of the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that "the following works in the Copyright Law and these Regulations have the following meanings: (8) Art works refer to flat or three-dimensional plastic art works composed of lines, colors, or other means that have aesthetic significance, such as painting, calligraphy, sculpture, etc. Calligraphy creators can use specific lines, dots, strokes, and techniques to adjust and create in multiple aspects such as radical proportion, stroke length, thickness selection, stroke intensity, etc., in order to create works that reflect the author's personality Artistic works that meet the originality requirements of the Copyright Law. In judicial practice, the debate on "whether the words formed by the output of word bank (software) can be copyrighted as a work of art" is also quite controversial. For example, the Beijing Internet Court made the (2021) J0491 Early Republic 14043 judgment, which considered that "the font involved in the case has originality and certain aesthetic significance, and belongs to a work of art protected by copyright law". Due to the fact that poster production is usually done through two methods: outsourcing to a third party or self production. Therefore, to reduce the risk of infringement, it is recommended that companies consider the approach and cost control of poster production from a business perspective when producing promotional posters. For example, if a third party is commissioned to produce a poster, it is recommended to clearly stipulate in the agreement that "the font used by the trustee has been authorized by the copyright owner of the font library, and the trustee has the right to authorize others to use and reprint the poster in the form of producing and selling the poster."; If you are making your own poster, it is recommended to understand the proposed price for using the font library in advance and consider whether to cooperate with the font library copyright owner in advance from a business perspective, or consider prioritizing the use of free fonts to avoid potential infringement risks.

Secondly, there is a risk of infringement in the content of short dramas. The plot or material source of short dramas is often from published online novels (or scripts) or other short dramas. The copyright owner of short dramas should pay attention to reviewing the legality of upstream works during the production process of short dramas, and also pay attention to avoiding plagiarism and other behaviors, in order to prevent possible infringement disputes caused by secondary creation from the source. In fact, not only short dramas have the problem of content infringement, but common TV series or movie infringement incidents in daily life are also common. A representative case is the "Qiong Yu Battle" triggered by the two dramas "Plum Blossom Burn" and "Palace Lock Liancheng". In this case, the effective judgment holds that "the plaintiff Chen Zhe, as the author and copyright owner of the script and novel" Plum Blossom Roar ", enjoys the right to adapt the aforementioned works in accordance with the law and is protected by law. The defendant Yu Zheng has access to the content of the plaintiff's script and novel" Plum Blossom Roar "and substantially used the plaintiff's script and novel" Plum Blossom Roar "." The character setting, character relationships, highly original plot, and the overall connection of the storyline were adapted to form the new work "Palace Lock Liancheng" script. The above behavior goes beyond the boundaries of reasonable reference, constitutes an adaptation of the plaintiff's work, infringes on the plaintiff's adaptation rights based on the drama "Plum Blossom Burn" and the novel "Plum Blossom Burn", and should bear corresponding infringement liability in accordance with the law. From this, it can be seen that there is also a significant risk of content infringement when it comes to the borrowing of character relationships and storylines.

Thirdly, in addition to the aforementioned infringement risks, practitioners also need to avoid the risk of illegal and irregular content in short dramas. On November 14, 2022, the General Office of the State Administration of Radio and Television issued a notice on further strengthening the management of online micro dramas and implementing the plan to enhance creativity, which clearly stated that "(1) serious and solid special rectification of 'mini program' type online micro dramas" should be carried out. Specifically, "Focusing on pornographic, vulgar, bloody, violent, low-quality, and aesthetically vulgar content of 'mini program' online short dramas, special rectification will be carried out. Provincial radio and television management departments should conduct comprehensive and in-depth investigations, understand the bottom line, implement classified policies, supervise key online audio-visual platforms within their jurisdiction that access and distribute 'mini programs' for self inspection, self correction, and implementation, and timely improve institutional mechanisms to strengthen management.", For problematic online short dramas, measures such as ordering rectification or offline processing may be taken. For example, previously, the Mimon short drama team listened to the four short dramas produced by H Island, including "Black Lotus Uprising Handbook", "Li Te Helps So Many Women", "Black Maid", and "As a Substitute, My Monthly Salary is Million", which were successively taken down or banned from being put on sale due to their portrayal of extreme revenge, violence against violence, or suspected illegal activities such as pornography and vulgarity. For short drama producers, although the production cost of short dramas is relatively low, in order to avoid being restricted from being put on sale in the future, it is still necessary to pay attention to the compliance review of short drama content in the early production process to avoid illegal and irregular content.

The rapid growth of short dramas is bound to be accompanied by various challenges, and the legal risks faced are far more than the above-mentioned aspects. The gradual improvement of national regulatory policies also constantly reminds the industry to gradually move towards sustainable and healthy development. Only by adhering to the legal bottom line and operating legally and compliantly can enterprises survive in the industry in a long-term and orderly manner.

Industry · New Policies

Notice on the National Copyright Registration in 2023

On February 20, 2024, the website of the National Copyright Administration released a notice on the registration of copyright nationwide in 2023. According to the announcement data, the total number of copyright registrations in China reached 8923901 in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 40.46%, including 6428277 works with copyright registrations, a year-on-year increase of 42.30%; 2495213 computer software copyrights were registered, a year-on-year increase of 35.95%, with both the number and growth rate reaching a new high in five years; 411 copyright pledge registrations were made, a year-on-year increase of 17.43%.

The State Intellectual Property Office plans to revise the Regulations on Administrative Reconsideration of the China National Intellectual Property Administration

On February 7, 2024, the China National Intellectual Property Administration issued a notice to solicit public opinions on the Administrative Reconsideration Procedures of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, and the feedback of opinions is up to March 9.

The revised draft of opinions mainly includes the following modifications: firstly, implementing the requirements of institutional reform, improving the scope of accepting administrative reconsideration cases, and aligning them with the adjustment of institutional reform functions; Secondly, based on the latest revision of the Administrative Reconsideration Law, adaptive modifications will be made to the acceptance, review, and decision-making parts of the Regulations; Thirdly, in cooperation with the revision of intellectual property laws and regulations, we will clarify in the Regulations whether administrative actions taken by our bureau during the implementation of the new system can be applied for reconsideration; Fourth, add relevant contents in combination with the characteristics and practical needs of the administrative reconsideration work of the China National Intellectual Property Administration.

Notice of the Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation on Issuing the "Guidelines for the Release of Real Estate Advertisements in Beijing" and the "Guidelines for the Release of Financial Investment and Wealth Management Advertisements in Beijing"

On February 19, 2024, the website of the Beijing Municipal Supervision Bureau released the "Guidelines for Real Estate Advertising Release", which clearly stated that real estate advertising should adhere to the positioning of "houses are for living, not for speculation", express advertising content in a healthy form, and the area should be indicated as the building area or the interior building area; If it involves the evaluation of real estate prices, the evaluation unit, appraiser, and evaluation time should be indicated; Advertising spokespersons can only provide recommendations and proof for used commercial properties, other types of properties, or real estate agency services they have received. The Guidelines for the Release of Financial Investment and Wealth Management Advertisements clearly state that it is not allowed to promote uncontrolled consumption and extravagant lifestyles, nor to induce audiences to accept inappropriate financial products and services. The content shall not exceed the business scope and sales area specified in the financial operation license or filing documents. Two guidelines each clarify a negative list within their respective fields.

Annual Report of the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court (2023)

The Supreme People's Court Intellectual Property Court's Annual Report (2023) was released on February 23, 2024, by the Supreme People's Court website. It is divided into six parts to introduce the key work points of the Intellectual Property Court in 2023.

The report includes six parts: preface, basic information of cases, active fulfillment of judicial responsibilities and missions, continuous deepening of institutional and mechanism reform, comprehensive improvement of team capacity and quality, and concluding remarks. It clarifies that in 2023, a total of 7776 technical intellectual property and monopoly cases were accepted, with 5062 new cases, 4562 cases concluded, and 3214 cases outstanding, with a settlement to income ratio of 90.1%. Among them, infringement cases continue to grow, and administrative cases have significantly increased, The number of cases involving strategic emerging industries continues to grow; The court will increase the protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry, strengthen the protection of pharmaceutical intellectual property rights, properly handle new disputes in the field of information technology, strengthen judicial review of substantive conditions for authorization and confirmation, strengthen judicial anti-monopoly and technology secret protection, in order to continuously promote the modernization of intellectual property trial work.