Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Thank CTOnews.com netizens Kongshan Niaoyuki for the clue delivery! CTOnews.com, April 27 (Xinhua) recently, the Hangzhou Internet Court issued a first-instance judgment on the first case involving the infringement of "virtual digital human", finding that the defendant, an Internet company in Hangzhou, constituted copyright infringement and unfair competition, and ordered him to bear the legal liability of eliminating the impact and compensating for losses (including rights maintenance costs) of 120000 yuan.

According to reports, in October 2019, Mofa released virtual digital human Ada through public events, and in October and November of the same year, it released two videos through the bilibili platform, one for introducing the scene application of virtual digital human Ada, and one for recording the motion capture images of live actor Xu and virtual digital human Ada.

Image of ▲ Virtual Digital Human Ada in July 2022, an Internet company in Hangzhou posted two videos accused of infringement through its Douyin account. The central position of the video uses the relevant video content released by Mofa, replaces the logo at the beginning and end of the film, and adds marketing information for the virtual digital human course to the overall video. One of the videos also added the registered trademark of a network company in Hangzhou and wrote other virtual digital human names into the video title.

▲ was accused of infringing video screenshots Mofa complained that the above-mentioned actions of a network company in Hangzhou infringed on its right of information network dissemination of art and audio-visual works, infringed on the network dissemination rights of video producers and performers in video products, and constituted unfair competition acts of false propaganda, so it went to the court and asked a network company in Hangzhou to eliminate the impact and compensate for losses (including rights costs) of 500000 yuan.

The ▲ plaintiff claimed that the video screenshot of the video work was taken by an Internet company in Hangzhou, arguing that Mofa did not enjoy the relevant rights, that its actions did not constitute infringement, and that it did not actually profit from publishing the alleged infringing video.

CTOnews.com summarizes the main points of the decision of Hangzhou Internet Court as follows:

As a specific application of artificial intelligence technology and the collective product of many technical fields, virtual digital human is only a tool for the author to create to some extent, and does not have the identity of the author.

The middle person behind the real-person-driven virtual digital human is an indispensable participant. The "performance" made by the virtual digital human is actually the digital projection and digital technology reproduction of the real-life performance, and it is not a performer in the sense of the copyright Law. does not enjoy the right of the performer.

When the virtual digital human participates in filming or acting as a role, its behavior and performance activities are recorded and filmed on a certain medium to form a continuous dynamic picture, and it does not enjoy the copyright of audio-visual works or the neighboring rights of video producers.

Therefore, under the framework of the existing copyright legal system, virtual digital human does not enjoy copyright and neighboring rights.

The related videos using Ada images constitute audio-visual works and video products respectively. Mofa enjoys the property rights of the above works and the rights of video producers.

The release of two alleged infringing videos by a network company in Hangzhou is in line with the constitutive elements of the act of information network dissemination, one of which constitutes an infringement on the right of network dissemination of information of audio-visual works, and the other constitutes an infringement on the right of information network dissemination of works of art, video producers and performers, which directly harms the commercial interests of Mofa and constitutes unfair competition of false propaganda.

In the end, the court ordered an Internet company in Hangzhou to eliminate the impact and compensate the company for economic losses (including rights costs) of 120000 yuan on its Douyin account.

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