Guangming website review: Copyright protection cannot be achieved without dates. Photographers who use their own works face compensation of 80000 yuan in China | Photo | Rights protection
On August 15, the microblog user "Jeff's Star Tour" and photographer Dai Jianfeng sent a document saying, "Today, I received a phone call from Visual China, saying that my official account infringed on their 173 photos, and I had to pay them more than 80000 yuan! When I opened the content, these so-called" infringing photos "turned out to be my own works." Dai Jianfeng stressed that these works had never cooperated with Visual China, nor had they been passed on to the library of Visual China.
Once this matter was reported by the media, it aroused great public attention, and the entry # The photo I took was sued for infringement by Visual China # went viral on Weibo's hot search. We can't help but recall the past when Visual China was trapped in the "picture gate". In April 2019, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League released two screenshots of the National Flag and Emblem of the People's Republic of China provided on the Visual China website. The screenshot displayed the price of one image of the National Emblem, which stated that it should be used for content not less than 150 yuan, full page spread not less than 500 yuan, and magazine cover not less than 1000 yuan. The official WeChat account of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League asked, "Is the copyright of the national flag and emblem also owned by your company?" In response, the founder of Visual China stated that many of these photos were uploaded by contributors and the copyright statement has been revoked. After receiving an administrative penalty of 300000 yuan and shutting down the website for more than 20 days, Visual China resumed its online operation. Some netizens have said, "We have also received such so-called infringement notices from Visual China, but in the end, we found that it did not involve infringement at all. The fact is that this is their sales method, hoping to buy its members. This unscrupulous company should be properly rectified and supported by bloggers!"
In the era of image reading, the demand for images has surged, leading to the trend of industrialization of image copyright. Some news organizations are implementing a global contracted photographer system and news image purchasing services to meet the demand for news images. However, some companies represented by Visual China have frequently filed copyright infringement lawsuits in various regions, using litigation compensation as the main source of revenue, which has repeatedly triggered public opinion. As early as 2019, CCTV commented that Visual China used a "helpless" attitude to turn legal affairs into sales, infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of creators while also engaging in "rights protection and extortion" against users. The phenomenon of using the name of the law to "protect rights and attract customers" and "protect rights and generate income" on images that do not enjoy copyright should be more effectively regulated and regulated.
With the development of generative artificial intelligence, copyright protection will face more complex situations in the future. This month, several world-renowned news and image agencies, writers, and photographer groups jointly signed an open letter demanding an increase in AI copyright protection. Protecting intellectual property rights is essential for producing more and better original works, which has become a social consensus. China is also continuously strengthening the legal and regulatory system for intellectual property protection. Some legal professionals believe that the success of such rights protection actions objectively benefits the protection of copyright and the development of the copyright industry. But respecting intellectual property does not mean condoning non compliant business practices, let alone undermining the social consensus on protecting intellectual property. If the means are wrong, no matter how good the starting point is, it lacks legitimacy and rationality.
On the day photographer Dai Jianfeng posted, the founder of Visual China responded that there was a misunderstanding and had already been in contact with the photographer. But the latest situation is that the photographer responded this morning: they do not accept the viewpoint of Visual China, there is no misunderstanding here, please stop your infringement immediately! Immediately, the market value of Visual China evaporated by over 300 million.
It seems that if there are dates but no dates, they will be shaken three times. What comes down is not only fresh dates, but also possibly broken branches.