Does WeChat WeChat official account arbitrarily reprint other people’s articles for infringement? Judge answer
Is WeChat WeChat official account arbitrarily reprinting other people’s articles infringing?
Our reporter Zhang Xueyu
Zhang Ling (a pseudonym) has never been able to operate WeChat WeChat official account. Looking at the number of fans who are not increasing but decreasing, Zhang Ling asked his friends around him how to operate WeChat official account.
"Find some articles that are heavily read but are not prohibited from reprinting, indicate the author and source, and then reprint them in your WeChat official account … …” "Turn some famous books into audio to facilitate others’ reading. We will record the audio ourselves, so it won’t be infringing? " "I have a lot of e-book resources stored in my network disk, which can be shared with you for free by providing links, and maybe I can increase the number of fans … …” Friends have "made moves".
Zhang Ling then began to try the above methods one by one, and the number of fans of Gonghao really increased. While she was secretly pleased, she received a letter of response to the lawsuit. Zhang Ling don’t understand, so the operation of infringement? In this regard, the judge of the Beijing Internet Court gave an answer.
Q: Is it infringing on WeChat WeChat official account to reprint other people’s published articles?
A: Even if the author and source have been indicated when reprinting, and a disclaimer has been made, indicating "If infringement is involved, please contact to delete", and the reprinted article has not been marked "Reprinting without permission is strictly prohibited", the behavior of the actor reprinting related articles may still constitute infringement.
Zhang Ling reprinted other people’s published articles through its WeChat WeChat official account without authorization, which enabled the public to obtain the articles involved at the time and place selected by them, and constituted an infringement on the right of information network communication. In this kind of case, although WeChat WeChat official account indicated the author and the source of the article when reprinting it, this behavior only constituted the protection of the author’s right of signature, so we can’t ignore the infringement fact that it didn’t get the author’s permission when spreading the articles involved.
Q: Are the disclaimers such as "If infringement is involved, please contact to delete" valid?
A: Disclaimers have no legal effect. Such statements are actually a "safe haven" for network service providers, but they are not applicable to network content providers. No matter whether they are declared or not, unauthorized reprinting constitutes infringement. Many articles will be marked "Reprinting without permission" when they are published, but this does not mean that articles without such a statement can be reprinted at will. It is a mandatory provision of the copyright law to authorize before reprinting, and the statement is only a further emphasis on the relevant provisions.
The copyright law stipulates the specific circumstances of legal permission, including the legal permission for newspapers and periodicals to reprint works that have been published in newspapers and periodicals, and other newspapers and periodicals can reprint without the consent of the right holder unless the right holder explicitly declares that they are not allowed to reprint. However, the legal permission of newspaper reprinting does not extend to the network environment, because in reality, online reprinting is everywhere, and few people actually pay the author. If the legal permission is allowed, the author’s interests can hardly be guaranteed. Therefore, reprinting published works on the network without permission constitutes infringement.
Q: Is it an infringement to turn other people’s works into audio and post them on WeChat WeChat official account?
A: The operator of WeChat WeChat official account converts other people’s published articles or books into audio and provides them in WeChat WeChat official account, so that the public can obtain relevant articles or books at their own time and place, which constitutes an infringement on the copyright owner’s right to spread information on the Internet.
No matter whether the expression of the works involved has been changed or not, and whether the infringer has spent time and energy, the permission of the copyright owner should be obtained when spreading other people’s works to an unspecified public, otherwise it will constitute infringement.
If the audio provided to the public is not recorded by itself, the operator of WeChat WeChat official account may infringe on the copyright owner’s right of information network communication, and may also infringe on the rights of producers and performers of recordings. The Copyright Law stipulates that performers have the right to authorize others to spread their performances to the public through information networks, and producers of sound recordings also enjoy the right to spread their sound recordings through information networks.
Q: Can I link the article to the cloud disk address?
A: Users can get the download link address of related articles or books by clicking "Read the full text" at the end of WeChat WeChat official account tweet or following WeChat WeChat official account and entering the name of the article or book. This kind of behavior does not directly upload or store other people’s articles or books, but links to the cloud disk address, and does not directly crack the genuine e-book website through deep linking technology, which also constitutes infringement, which constitutes an infringement on the right of information network communication.
By paying attention to WeChat WeChat official account, the public can obtain the link and verification code of the network disk involved according to the relevant content of the article, and then browse and download the e-books online through the network disk. The above-mentioned behavior is to provide unauthorized e-books to the public without permission. Any public who wants to obtain the books involved can obtain them at the time and place selected by himself according to the guidance of WeChat WeChat official account, which has constituted an infringement on the right of information network communication.
Providing the e-book cloud disk link address and password on WeChat WeChat official account does not constitute fair use. Although the e-books involved in the case are still stored in the personal network disk, through the medium of WeChat WeChat official account, the network disk resources are no longer only for individuals to learn and appreciate, but have achieved the effect that the unspecified public can obtain the e-books involved in the case at their selected time and place.
Operators of WeChat WeChat official account should broaden the exposure of WeChat official account through legal channels during their operation in WeChat official account. Do not provide written works in various forms such as reprinting, converting into audio, providing download links, etc. without others’ permission in pursuit of attention. It is a long-term solution to attract fans to tap their own characteristics and devote themselves to providing original content.