Does "rice drama" infringe copyright? Broadcasting "rice dramas" on online platforms does not make profits, but infringes on rights

"Rice drama" refers to writing scripts for idols, modifying and recreating already played film and television works or materials intercepted in other videos, making them a new drama and spreading them through the Internet.

is reported that while there is currently an idol drama called "rice drama" that is popular, its compliance issues continue to cause heated discussions. The so-called "rice drama" refers to writing scripts for idols, modifying and recreating films and television works that have been broadcast or materials intercepted in other videos, making them a new drama and spreading them through the Internet. The TV series "Unpredictable Lovers" starring "Yang Yang, Zhao Liying, Tan Songyun and others has had 22.91 million views in just two episodes since it was broadcast in November 2016, with 48,700 fans. Youku has placed it under the drama section, and so on. On the Internet, searching by keywords such as "rice production" and "rice production plot direction" will lead to many "rice production dramas". Some "rice organizations" have also spontaneously formed behind the "rice drama", which were spontaneously formed by some fans with outstanding abilities in editing, production, etc., who claim to be non-profit organizations. They are also vividly called "scissors hands". The copyright statement of the playback platform Youku shows that users who upload works on Youku are deemed to agree to Youku's copyright statement, and the website does not bear any liability for breach of contract or any other legal liability. Youku said it would cancel user qualifications for users who uploaded suspected infringing works multiple times. Whether the specific video is original requires manual review.

Does the "rice drama" produced by celebrity fans infringe copyright?

In this regard, the reporter interviewed Yuan Bo, a judge of the Second Intermediate People's Court of Shanghai City, and Meng Aihua, a lawyer of Beijing Deheheng Law Firm. They believe that even if the producers of "rice dramas" do not profit from it, they may constitute copyright infringement: the material of "rice dramas" basically comes from the original film and television works, so it is difficult to defend the infringement accusation on the grounds of "fair use":"rice dramas" may infringe copyrights, adaptation rights, information network dissemination rights, etc.

A "rice drama" is generally a "new drama" formed by the fan group of a big-name star who selects video materials from one or more film and television dramas that their idols have filmed, re-edited and dubbing. Due to the exquisiteness of production, some "rice dramas" were mistakenly regarded as new works by a certain star after being disseminated. Faced with accusations of suspected copyright infringement, some producers of "rice dramas" were very aggrieved and issued an announcement to prove their innocence, indicating that the relevant personnel had not benefited from it. However, if you don't profit from it, you won't infringe copyright? Yuan Bo believes that although many people are copyright aware, they believe that as long as the use of other people's works is non-profit, it is not infringing use. The mistake of this view is that infringing use of other people's works not only includes using other people's works to seek improper economic benefits, but also includes unreasonable use of other people's works without profit. In other words, if you make unreasonable use of someone else's work, whether it is profitable or not, you may be suspected of infringing copyright.

Whether "rice drama" belongs to "fair use"

Meng Aihua introduced that according to the provisions of Article 22, paragraph 1, item 6 of the Copyright Law,"for school classroom teaching or scientific research, translation or small copies of published works for teaching or scientific research" Use by scientific researchers "constitutes fair use. In practice, some schools use this clause to copy textbooks and provide them free of charge to hundreds of students for classroom teaching. Although the school does not make profits from this, and the purpose is also for "teaching and research", the scope and quantity of use have obviously far exceeded the necessary limits of reasonable use, and it is suspected of infringement. Similarly, in the editing and adaptation of star works by "Fanzhi Drama", although many fans did not do it for profit purposes, they actually took advantage of some of the market reputation of the original work and obviously damaged its rights and interests, which in fact exceeded the scope of reasonable use.

Very interestingly, the reporter found that there was such a rights protection declaration at the beginning of a popular "rice drama":"This film is a rice video, and all materials come from already aired TV dramas. Second transcriptions, second modifications and commercial use are prohibited." It can be seen that fans who released "rice dramas" also have a sense of rights protection. They believe that in addition to "commercial" purposes, other "second transcriptions and second changes" should also be "prohibited." So, if they know they want to ban others, why do they think they have the right to "pass on and change" the original film and television works? In this regard, Yuan Bo explained that this is mainly because the producers of "rice drama" believe that "rice drama" is a newly created work. Although "rice drama" is formed by selecting video materials from the works of several well-known film and television dramas and re-editing and dubbing, it is a completely different "creation" in terms of content, plot, editing, and dubbing, and is a new work. Although the video themes of the original work are used, it is also a "appropriate quote" in reasonable use. However, Yuan Bo believes that in essence,"rice drama" does not belong to reasonable use. The "appropriate citation" in fair use is stipulated in Article 22, paragraph 1, item 2, of the Copyright Law, that is,"in order to introduce, comment on a certain work or explain a certain issue, appropriately quote a published work of others in the work", no remuneration will be paid to the copyright owner without permission. In terms of its literal meaning, a comment mainly refers to an explanation, criticism, etc. of something, person, or situation in oral, written or other tangible form. However, analyzing the main characteristics of "rice drama", we will find that it mainly copies and pastes the original work. It cannot be regarded as a comment on the original work, and therefore cannot constitute an "appropriate quote" of the original work.

Meng Aihua also believes that from a legal perspective, one of the most basic requirements for "appropriate citation" is that when a work is quoted, the cited part cannot constitute the main part or substantive part of the citator's work. In other words, if the film footage appears or flashes past at appropriate intervals during the introduction, comments or explanations, it does not constitute infringement; on the contrary, if the film fragments constitute the main part of the new work or even the main source of attracting the audience's attention, it is difficult to consider it constitutes an "appropriate quote." As for the use form of "rice drama", although it has been cleverly transformed, its main video content material basically comes from the original work. Therefore, the number of citations determines that "rice drama" cannot be expanded to be interpreted as "appropriate citations."

What copyright rights are suspected of violating by "rice drama"?

What copyrights may "rice drama" infringe on the original work? Meng Aihua believes that according to Article 10 of the Copyright Law, rights holders can claim the following copyrights: 1. Signature rights. The so-called right of authorship means the right to identify the author and sign his name on the work. Therefore, if a "rice drama" uses other people's film and television works without indicating the source of the work (i.e. the relevant producer), this right will be violated. 2. Right to modify. The so-called right to modify means the right to modify or authorize others to modify a work. Since "rice dramas" all involve modifications to the original film and television works, they generally violate this right. 3. Protect the integrity of works. The so-called right to protect the integrity of a work means the right to protect a work from distortion or tampering. If the "rice drama" uses and re-edits the original film and television drama materials, resulting in a large degree of change and distortion of the original plot, this right may be violated. 4. Copy rights. The so-called right of reproduction refers to the right to make one or more copies of a work by printing, copying, rubbing, recording, video recording, reproduction, etc. It is worth noting that "rice drama" certainly cannot constitute plagiarism of the original film and television drama as a whole. However, even if you plagiarize video clips in a movie without permission, it may be suspected of infringing on the reproduction rights of other people's film and television works. 5. Adaptation rights. The so-called adaptation right means the right to change a work and create a new work with originality. Obviously, the editing and re-dubbing in "rice drama" is a typical adaptation of the original film and television drama. If it is not authorized, it will also constitute a violation of this right. 6. The right to disseminate information online. The so-called right of information network dissemination means the right to provide works to the public by wired or wireless means, so that the public can obtain works at a time and place chosen by the public. Obviously, spreading "rice drama" online without permission may infringe on this right of the original producer.

Yuan Bo added that according to Article 15 of the Copyright Law, copyright in film works and works created by methods similar to film-making is enjoyed by the producers. Therefore, for "rice dramas" suspected of infringement, it is generally difficult for film and television stars themselves to defend their rights, and only relevant producers can claim the above rights.

Does playing "rice dramas" on online platforms infringe?

Yuan Bo believes that to analyze whether a broadcasting platform infringes, we must consider whether the platform service provider is at fault subjectively. In the Intellectual Property Law, there is a "red flag rule", which means that if the infringement of others is openly waved in front of the information network service provider like a red flag, the service provider cannot excuse himself for not knowing it. Article 22 of the "Regulations on the Protection of Information Network Communication Rights" implements this rule, making it one of the exemption conditions for service providers to "do not know and have no reasonable reason to know that the works, performances, and audio and video products provided by the service object are infringed". Obviously, for some obvious infringement phenomena, platform service providers should exercise sufficient care and cannot allow infringement to occur in order to increase user attention. For example, if some videos involving popular actors are widely disseminated on their own online platforms, necessary attention should be paid to them, especially if they should be deleted immediately after receiving notice from relevant parties. Otherwise, the expanded part of the damage will be borne by the infringers. Joint and several liability. Platform service providers should pay special attention to the following three types of works: first, works in which the rights holder has sent rights declarations to the platform service provider; second, works that are being popular and popular, and ordinary people can still pay attention to the copyright of such works. Platform service providers cannot pretend not to be unaware; third, key supervised works announced by copyright administrative departments.

Editor: Mary