Short-video makers given advice on protecting copyright

Beijing judges have called on short-video creators to explicitly state their ownership of works uploaded online to better protect their copyright in litigation and effectively fight infringements.

"Specifying the ownership of a work, such as leaving a mark or issuing a statement on copyright protection in a uploaded short video, is crucial for the work's creator to protect his or her legitimate rights," Feng Gang, a judge from the Beijing Intellectual Property Court, said on Aug 19.

Feng also urged short-video creators to pay more attention to keeping records when authorizing an online platform or someone else to post works.

"Otherwise, it would be too hard for judges to identify who is the work's maker and owns the copyright," he said.

"Meanwhile, taking the initiative to collect evidence, including how long or how much content of a work is infringed and estimating how much profit the infringer gets, is also essential for the work's creators to protect their copyright in litigation, as that collection relates to how much compensation they can obtain as a result of the infringement."

Zhang Xiaoxia, director of the court's copyright committee, said the suggestions were made because copyright disputes in the short-video industry have become more frequent in recent years.

Since November 2014, when the court was established in the capital, it has heard 45 copyright cases involving short videos.

"The number is small, but the challenge for our case hearings and copyright protection is big, as some disputes related to new problems in the industry," Zhang said. "For example, whether a short-video platform should be held accountable when a livestreaming host is found infringing others' copyrights on the platform is a complicated problem."

She said it required judges to identify the relationship between the host and the platform operator, and that involved a lot of research.

As the industry is developing rapidly, Zhang said platform operators should draw attention to the problem to prevent unnecessary disputes.