Tencent was awarded a total of 323,000 yuan in compensation in five "Comic Gang" copyright infringement cases

Recently, the People's Court of Nanshan District, Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province issued judgments on five cases involving Tencent Computer Systems Co., Ltd. v. Shanghai Yuanku Network Technology Co., Ltd. for copyright ownership and infringement disputes. The court found that the "comic gang" constituted infringement and ordered the defendant to compensate the plaintiff Tencent Company for economic losses totaling 302,000 yuan within ten days from the effective date of the judgment, and the reasonable expenses for rights protection totaled 21,000 yuan.

Original title: Tencent was awarded a total of 323,000 yuan in compensation in five copyright infringement cases of "Comic Gang"

. Recently, the People's Court of Nanshan District, Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province issued judgments on five cases involving Tencent Computer Systems Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as "Tencent Company") v. Shanghai Yuanku Network Technology Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as "Yuanku Company). The court found that the" Comic Gang "constituted infringement, and ordered the defendant to compensate the plaintiff Tencent Company for economic losses totaling 302,000 yuan within ten days from the effective date of the judgment, and the reasonable expenses for rights protection totaled 21,000 yuan.

It is understood that "Comic Gang" is a mobile comic reading software owned by Shanghai Yuanku Network Technology Co., Ltd. In 2015, in response to the unauthorized dissemination of five comic works including "Fox Demon Little Matchmaker","2B Family Joy","Jun Lin Chen Xia","Taqi", and "Mountain River and Country Map" by Yuanku Company's "Comic Gang", Tencent Company requested the court to order the defendant to immediately stop infringing the copyright of these five comic works, compensate the plaintiff for a total of 1.4 million yuan in economic losses, and bear legal fees, legal fees, notarization fees and other rights protection expenses.

According to relevant staff from the Legal Department of Tencent, as of June 2016, the total number of works on Tencent's animation online platform exceeded 20,000, and the number of signed works exceeded 7000, of which more than 500 were fully copyright works. Among them, the infringed national manga work "Fox Demon Little Matchmaker" currently has 2.133.21 million clicks on Tencent Animation, ranking among the top of Tencent Animation's rankings, and has been adapted into animation, with high popularity and market value.

Employees of Hangzhou Fantasy Island Cultural and Creative Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as "Fantasy Island Company"), Tuo Xinke (pseudonym "Xiaoxin") and Fan Pengfei (pseudonym "Pansi Daxian") jointly created the comic work "Fox Demon Little Matchmaker"(hereinafter referred to as "Fox"), which was published and serialized on the plaintiff's Tencent Animation Platform website on October 14, 2013. According to the agreement between Fantasy Island Company and employees Tuo Xinke and Fan Pengfei, the two authors only enjoy the right of authorship for the work, while other copyrights belong to Fantasy Island Company. After being serialized, this work has been loved by netizens. It has long been ranked among the top ten in the "Popular List" and "Juvenile Comics List" of Tencent Animation Platform, and won the "First Award in China Animation" of Tencent Animation."Star Comics Award" Best Juvenile Comics of 2014. As of August 6, 2015, the work has received 488.05 million reading clicks. It has been adapted into an animation and has extremely high market value.

On April 29, 2014, the plaintiff signed the "Comic Works Licensing Contract" with Fantasy Island Company, and along with the contract, the plaintiff was issued a license for the information network dissemination rights of the "Fox" comic works and a copy of the "Fox" comic works to combat piracy. Fantasy Island Company exclusively licenses its copyrighted "Fox" works to the plaintiff, and when it discovered that a third party infringed the copyright of the comic works, The plaintiff has the right to pursue the legal liability of the infringement offender alone in his own name, and the authorization period starts from April 29, 2014 to April 28, 2019.

In July 2015, the plaintiff discovered that in the mobile APP "Comic Gang" developed and operated by the defendant, the work of "Fox" was disseminated without the plaintiff's permission. Users could read and download the work online in the software. The plaintiff had passed the Fangyuan Notary Office of Beijing City The above infringement facts were notarized. After verification, the "Fox" works provided in the "Comic Gang" software are completely consistent with the "Fox" works authorized by the plaintiff. As of the time of notarization, the "Fox" works in the defendant's "Comic Gang" software had been updated to 82 words.

The plaintiff believes that the "Fox" comic works are special duty works co-created by Tuo Xinke and Fan Pengfei, employees of Fantasy Island Company, as stipulated in the Copyright Law, and are copyrighted by Fantasy Island Company. With the authorization of Fantasy Island Company, the plaintiff has legally obtained The exclusive right to disseminate information on the Internet for "Fox" works, and the plaintiff has the right to file a lawsuit in his own name when discovering infringement of the "Fox" works by a third party. As the developer and operator of the "Comic Gang" software, the defendant provided users with online reading and downloading services for "Fox" works in its software without the plaintiff's consent. The above-mentioned behavior has infringed on the plaintiff's information network communication rights and caused serious economic losses to the plaintiff, and should bear civil liability to stop the infringement and compensate for losses (including rights protection expenses).

In order to protect its legitimate rights and interests, Tencent filed a lawsuit with the court, requesting that the defendant immediately stop infringing on the copyright of the "Fox" comic works, compensate the plaintiff for a total of 500,000 yuan in economic losses, and bear legal fees, legal fees, notarization fees and other rights protection expenses.

The defendant argued that the defendant stated that the comic gang was not the provider of the content and had never used this software or comic content to obtain any commercial income, so it should not bear infringement liability. Even if it bears infringement liability, it is not a malicious or intentional infringement. Agree to the plaintiff's claim.

After trial, the Nanshan District Court held that the case was a copyright infringement dispute and that the comics involved were art works in the sense of copyright in our country. Xinke and Fan Pengfei are the authors of the art work involved in the case. The two proved that they only have the authorship rights of the art work involved in the case, and all copyright property rights of the work belong to Fantasy Island Company. The plaintiff was authorized and licensed by Fantasy Island Company to obtain the exclusive information network dissemination rights of the work involved in the case, and had the right to file a lawsuit alone in his own name.

The Nanshan District Court pointed out that although the work was sent from the server of the linked website and the defendant's application software did not copy or upload the content, the server on which the linked website stored the work was now similar to the remote server controlled by the defendant. The link set by the defendant is only a link and a means for him to disseminate the work to the public. The defendant has played a leading role in the entire information network communication process and has essentially replaced the linked website to disseminate the work to the public. Therefore, the defendant's behavior violated the plaintiff's right to information network dissemination in respect of the work involved in the case, and the infringement should be immediately stopped and the liability for compensation for the losses should be borne.

In view of the fact that the defendant had deleted the link to the work involved in the case and actually stopped the infringement, the plaintiff did not provide evidence to prove the actual loss or the defendant's illegal income. Taking into account factors such as the type, popularity, the defendant's infringement degree, and the circumstances of the infringement, the Nanshan District Court ruled that the defendant would compensate the plaintiff Tencent Company for economic losses of 90,000 yuan within ten days from the effective date of the judgment, and the reasonable expenses for rights protection totaled 5,000 yuan.

Editor: yvette