Beijing court suggests enhanced awareness of IP protection

While pledging to better handle online copyright disputes involving cultural and art activities, a Beijing court has also suggested all entities engaged in the performances enhance the awareness of IP protection.

The Beijing Internet Court made the pledge and suggestion as it saw a rapid growth of such lawsuits over the past few years.

From Sept 9, 2018, when the court was set up, to March 31 this year, it heard 764 online copyright cases regarding cultural and arts activities, such as songs, dances, dramas and operas, of which, 623 have been concluded, according to data released by the court on Thursday.

The average annual growth rate was about 19.8 percent, the top court said, revealing "the number of such cases will continue going up with the fast development of new media technologies".

The court said that plaintiffs in the cases covered various areas, including lyricists, composers, program producers, video creators, album companies, theaters and media outlets.

The cases included infringements caused by offline acts, such as adaptation or filming of existing works, as well as those caused by online behaviors, such as livestreaming or information dissemination, it added.

In a case, for example, a singer took a livestreaming host, who owns more than 30 million followers on a short-video platform, to court after finding the host privately sang the song on the street and posted a video of the performance on the internet, attracting a large number of online views.

Claiming that the defendant infringed his right to sing the song and spread information about the work in cyberspace, the plaintiff requested the court to stop the infringement and asked for a compensation.

After a trial, the court ruled in favor of the plaintiff, ordering the short-video producer to remove the video from the internet and pay 2,500 yuan ($345) in compensation.

The court emphasized the importance of better dealing with such cases, "as it helps strengthen the protection of copyright owners, and it's also conducive to promoting the healthy development of the performance market in the capital and enriching people's cultural lives."

The court also encouraged copyright owners to protect their legitimate rights and interests by properly keeping their original works and timely registering with IP-related administrations, calling for those engaged in the cultural and art industries to enhance the awareness of copyright protection.

In addition, it suggested copyright owners, cultural content creators, internet service providers and the industrial associations play a bigger role in educating the public, telling them to strongly protect IP rights through performance and new media platforms.