On the morning of May 23, Guo Youcai started broadcasting in the square of the National Flower Expo Park in Heze, Shandong, but this time Guo Youcai closed the reward function in the live broadcast room. On the afternoon of the same day, he released his first original song on his personal social platform.
Previously, Guo Youcai was successful on the Internet because of his cover of the old song "Promise" in the 1990s, and rose by tens of millions in a short time. Under the blessing of heat, Guo Youcai sang songs in the live video room and won the audience’s appreciation. While the fire broke out, Guo Youcai gradually faced a big controversy:Does live coverage of other people’s songs constitute infringement?
"Promise" lyricist response:
Commercial income should be distributed to creators.
According to Red Star News, on May 23, Ding Xiaowen, the lyricist of the song "Promise", said that he was grateful to Guo Youcai for making this song popular and getting attention again. Guo Youcai had a good name. "He is really talented."
However, Ding Xiaowen also said, "I think that all these songs should be used today, regardless of singing, performance or any use, in fact, they should be approved and authorized by the original creator."
Ding Xiaowen said that many online celebrity cover songs are generally not authorized in advance.However, she thinks that Guo Youcai’s behavior is a kind of commercial behavior, and the function of paying and rewarding should be opened, and the profits should be reasonably distributed to the songwriters."This is a matter of course, fairness and justice."
On the issue of copyright protection, Ding Xiaowen also said frankly that it must be done in accordance with the relevant norms. She also expects everyone’s copyright to be protected and hopes that the relevant copyright system can be more complete.
The original singer of Promise was Li Yijun, a female singer from Taiwan Province, China, which was released on January 1st, 1995 and included in the album Promise.
The reporter noticed that the Li Yijun Tik Tok spread the cantata and chorus versions of The Promise on May 16th and 18th, and many fans expressed their love with the posts, while a few fans bluntly said that they supported the copyright recovery. Li Yijun was suspected of responding to someone’s cover song in the video on 16th.She said: "Thank you for liking The Promise and watching many friends’ videos. Everyone sang so beautifully."
Does the live cover involve infringement?
Is it not infringement if you don’t accept the reward?
The reporter observed that Guo Youcai will broadcast live almost every day, often by fans ordering songs, and he will sing, and the rewards will continue in the live broadcast room. The original singer and songwriter are basically not indicated in the cover video and live broadcast, which also causes the dispute whether this behavior involves infringement.
In the eyes of some people, Guo Youcai’s live broadcast room is rewarded, which is a profitable cover and is suspected of infringement; Some people also wonder if so many anchors sing or score music during live broadcast, are they all infringing?
According to China News, Xia Hailong, a lawyer of Shanghai Shenlun Law Firm, said,Performing in the live broadcast room and accepting rewards is a commercial performance. Covering other people’s songs should obtain the permission of the right holder and pay the fee.If the infringement of the copyright of other people’s songs is held accountable, the copyright owner may ask the infringer to stop the infringement, that is, he may not continue to cover the right songs in the live broadcast.
Then, if you don’t accept rewards when you cover live, does it not involve infringement?
Zhao Zhanling, a lawyer of Beijing Jiawei Law Firm and a special researcher at the Intellectual Property Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, said that whether the reward function is opened or not, and whether the live broadcast can directly benefit from it, are not the criteria for judging whether it is a commercial act or an infringement.Even if there is no open reward function, traffic can often be realized, including enhancing commercial value, attracting goods or sponsorship, and finally obtaining commercial benefits.
"The use of other people’s music works in the live broadcast room is more likely to constitute commercial use, and it is easy to be identified as infringement without the permission of the right holder."Zhao Zhanling said that even if the right holder does not explicitly object to others using his works in the live broadcast room, it does not mean that it can be used, and it needs to be authorized by the right holder.
How complicated is the copyright of a song?
According to the Morning News, Lu Shiwei, a senior media person and music critic, said in an interview that the copyright classification of songs is very detailed at present.Words, songs, singing and adaptation have different copyright contracts, and the voice version recorded by a specific singer also has related rights.People who don’t know may think that the copyright of a song is somewhere, but it is often not.
Lawyer Deng Yu, a member of the Intellectual Property Committee of the Shanghai Lawyers Association and a senior partner of the Shanghai office of Zhonglun Wende Law Firm, said,Under the existing copyright law system, different rights subjects enjoy different types of rights.
Simply using the words and songs of a musical work requires authorization from the author of the words and songs or the organization or enterprise that owns the relevant copyright;
In order to adapt and cover songs, it is necessary to further obtain the right of performance, adaptation, information network communication and other works besides the authorization of lyrics and songs;
If you directly use the singing version of a specific singer, you need to get the authorization of the singer and the producer of the version of the phonogram.
Is it infringing to search for music use from the platform?
Search music directly from the music library of the live broadcast platform as live accompaniment or background music. Does this case also involve infringement?
Zhao Zhanling said that if the soundtrack is searched from the platform, the platform also constitutes infringement without the authorization of the obligee. "But if there is a related soundtrack in the platform, the high probability has been authorized."
"At present, many large platforms do provide music works to platform users through centralized procurement. In this case, users can use them within the use scenarios, methods and deadlines agreed in the platform user agreement, and generally do not involve infringement issues." Xia Hailong said.
For video clips and producers, the soundtrack in the video also needs extra care. Lin Jian, a partner of Beijing Weiheng (Shanghai) Law Firm, introduced,At present, many editing software will purchase the copyright of some tracks in advance for the editors to use for free, but it will also involve some restrictions.For example, the video released by clipping is legal in Tik Tok, and if it is released on other platforms, it will constitute infringement. And some music on software, such as "QQ Music", will also stipulate the corresponding usage rights in the user agreement, and you can play or forward the sharing link. However, if the usage scenario specified in the agreement is exceeded, there will be a risk of infringement.
Lin Jian reminded that if ordinary users want to get free music resources, they can look for a special copyright-free music library to avoid the risk of infringement.
Is it infringement for AI singers to cover other people’s songs?
Previously, "AI Stefanie" had caused a heated discussion. It is understood that some people use Stefanie’s existing vocal samples to train their timbre, tone quality and pronunciation characteristics through AI, establish their voice model, and then use the generated timbre to cover other songs. The new songs produced by AI voice cloning technology are very similar to the singer himself in sound and style, which leads many netizens to believe them. Is this imitation infringing?
The scope of works protected by China’s Copyright Law includes written works, oral works, music, art works, etc., and sound is not included. Therefore, simply imitating the performer’s timbre, singing skills and other characteristics does not belong to the object protected by the Copyright Law.
However, only on a certain video platform, "AI Stefanie" has more than 1,000 cover works, among which cover singer Jay Chou’s "Hair as Snow" and other works have even won more than 2 million broadcasts. Many lawyers said that the virtual singer’s cover works show the specific song title and singer’s name, which is suspected of infringing the name right, personality right and copyright of the relevant singer. Even if some publishers mark the disclaimer of "only for entertainment and not for business" in the video, the huge traffic and economic benefits behind it are difficult to be clear, and there is no way to completely clarify the infringement issue.
Not all covers are infringing.
Is it impossible to cover other people’s songs in any place?
Zhao Zhanling introduced that Article 24 of the Copyright Law stipulates that "others can use their works without permission and without payment to the copyright owner", including users using the works of the copyright owner for the purposes of personal study, teaching research, reporting and introduction, under the premise of "indicating the author’s name and the name of the work, and without affecting the normal use of the work".
However, he also pointed out that the use of music works copyrighted by others in most live broadcasts or short videos does not belong to the fair use situation stipulated in Article 24 of the Copyright Law.
(References: China News Network, Red Star News, Upstream News, Hubei Daily, Morning News, People’s Daily)
Topic Host | Reporter Lin Runqi
