LeadLeo executives attended the opening ceremony of the first Shanghai International Digital Arts Expo and released2022China's Digital Art Copyright White Paper 2019Original 'LeadLeo' 'LeadLeo' 'LeadLeo'
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In the internet era, digital artworks are highly susceptible to replication and dissemination, making copyright protection extremely challenging. Moreover, with the development of emerging industries such as metaverse and digital collectibles, the ownership of rights for digital artworks has become more complex. The rapid and large-scale authorization of massive amounts of works will face challenges. Therefore, China urgently needs to establish a more complete digital art copyright protection mechanism, build a good digital copyright ecosystem, enhance the copyright awareness of the whole society, and better protect the interests of producers, operators, and consumers at all nodes along the entire digital art copyright industry chain.
On February 10th, the opening forum of the first Shanghai International Digital Arts Expo was grandly held at the Wang Xiaohui Art Museum. As a strategic cooperation partner of this expo, Wang Chenhui, co-founder and president of LeadLeo, was invited to attend the event and delivered a keynote speech titled 'The 2022 China Digital Arts Copyright White Paper' (hereinafter referred to as the 'Report').
The report was jointly authored by LeadLeo and Frost & Sullivan (frost &Released jointly by Frost & Sullivan, the abbreviation for 'Sullivan', Shanghai International Digital Arts Expo, National Copyright Trade Base (Shanghai), and Taihe Tai (Shanghai) Law Firm. The core objective of the report is to clarify the definition of digital art copyright in China, the copyright protection process, and copyright protection technologies, as well as emerging business formsDiscuss the copyright regulations for 'digital collectibles', helping digital art creators, distribution platforms, consumers, and relevant government and enterprises enhance their understanding of digital art copyrights, and further promoting the healthy development of China's digital art industry.
Wang Chenhui stated that from the perspective of digital art creators, the enhancement of copyright awareness helps to promote the creation of excellent digital art works; from the perspective of digital art-related enterprises, the improvement of copyright awareness is conducive to enhancing the management and operation capabilities of the entire copyright chain; from the government's perspective, recognizing the value and significance of digital art copyrights, standardizing regulatory policies can maximize market value and play an important supporting role for digital copyrights in the cultural industry.
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01Why is the digital art copyright industry worthy of attention?
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Wang Chenhui pointed out that, from the perspective of current development, there are four major pain points in the field of digital art copyright: reshaping the copyright ecosystem by emerging business models, frequent digital copyright litigation, serious infringement of images and audio works, and difficulties for creators to protect their rights.
Firstly, the birth of the metaverse and digital collectibles is reshaping the copyright ecosystem: With the development of metaverse platforms, the way digital content is created may undergo significant changes. For example,AI-generated content (AIGC), created by artificial intelligence, will become one of the main productive forces in the future industry. Low-code, zero-code, and automated content generation will become important development trends. Against this backdrop, the attribution of rights to digital works will become more complex, and rapid large-scale authorization of massive amounts of work will face challenges.
Secondly, China's digital art industry is facing the frequent issue of digital copyright litigation: Intellectual property cases accepted by courts at the first instance across China approximatelySeventy percent are copyright cases, and about 70% of them are related to the internet. It can be seen that the protection of digital works' copyrights will be a focus of national copyright protection efforts in the future.
In addition, in terms of the types of infringing works, currently, copyright infringement involving images and audiovisual materials accounts for a high proportion: In 2021, copyright cases accounted for nearly 77% of the cases accepted by the Beijing Internet Court. Among them, image-related cases had the highest proportion, followed by audio-visual works, and there was a continuous growth trend.
Finally, it is important to note that current art creators are facing difficulties in protecting their digital copyrights: According to data statistics from the China New Economy Research Institute, approximatelyEighty-five percent of creators are forced to choose 'not to speak out' or 'resolve privately' after their work is infringed. The main reason is that the traditional process of evidence collection and rights protection is complex, time-consuming, and costly, with damages for about 60% of image infringement cases accounting for only 20% of the litigation costs.
02What are digital art copyright works?
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According to Wang Chenhui, at the legal level, digital art copyright works are based on copyright, centered around the work itself, and supported by online publications.
（1) Definition of digital art copyright works: Compared with artworks and works in daily language, digital art copyright works have a certain"The threshold." Digital art works can only be called digital art copyright works if they meet the legal definition of "intellectual achievements within the field of art that are original and capable of being reproduced in some tangible form." In China, copyright refers to the right of authorship. Digital art copyright works are protected by the Copyright Law.
（2) Characteristics of digital art copyright works: According to legal provisions, digital art copyright works must satisfy two major elements: originality and reproducibility.
Originality: A work must be created independently by the author through conceptualization and creation, and only works with originality are protected by copyright law. To determine whether a digital art work is original, one can refer to the following three key points:① The work is independently completed by the author and not plagiarized or copied from others; ② The work needs to reflect the author's personality and possess a certain level of creative excellence. For example, in art works, originality is usually manifested in the use of lines and colors. In music works, originality lies in the combination of notes, the arrangement of scales, and the choreography of rhythms; ③ The work can clearly express the author's thoughts in a certain form.
Replicability: It refers to the ability to produce one or more copies of a work through methods such as printing, photocopying, tracing, rubbing, recording, videoing, transcribing, or photographing, without any change in the content of the work.
（3) Basis for digital art copyright works: Digital art copyright works must comply with the 'Regulations on the Administration of Online Publishing Services'. An online publication refers to a digital work that is provided to the public through information networks and has publishing characteristics such as editing, production, processing, reproduction, distribution, etc.
03How to protect digital art copyrights?
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Wang Chenhui further pointed out that the copyright protection process for digital art works typically involves three major stages: copyright registration and preservation, copyright distribution, and copyright enforcement.
In the cross-examination phase of rights protection litigation, judges need to verify and confirm that evidence is accurate and unaltered, providing strong support for the parties' rights protection efforts. However, from the current development situation, a large number of original authors in China lack the awareness to retain evidence during the creation process and after the completion of their works, often facing difficulties presenting original evidence when dealing with copyright infringement or authorization issues. Therefore, original authors must establish an awareness to retain original evidence as soon as possible.
Currently, there are mainly two methods for digital copyright authentication in China: traditional copyright registration and blockchain copyright authentication. Both methods have legal effect, but blockchain copyright authentication is more convenient and can effectively solve pain points such as long registration service cycles and high costs for digital copyrights.
04How is blockchain evidence storage technology applied to commercial copyright protection?
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Wang Chenhui stated that compared to traditional copyright protection models, credible blockchain platforms can effectively improve the efficiency of resolving copyright disputes, reduce costs of rights protection, and reshape the value of copyrights.
Confirmation of rights and evidence preservation: （1) The traditional method of copyright registration for works is usually an offline application, which is cumbersome and requires traveling between multiple departments/organizations. It typically takes about 30 working days to obtain a copyright registration certificate, making it difficult to quickly confirm the ownership of works. 2) Ant Blockchain provides SaaS platform services and API access services, enabling individuals and institutions to achieve 'publish and get registered' instantly. A certificate is generated online with one click and can be verified by the judiciary.
Dissemination Monitoring: （1) In the face of hundreds of millions of new media original works generated daily on online platforms, traditional manual monitoring and comparison methods are difficult to manage the vast amount of data across the entire network, making it challenging to control content distribution and ensure security issues; （2) Ant Blockchain uses the extraction of content feature values to generate specific digital fingerprints as its technical feature. It identifies and monitors based on the content itself, with an accuracy precision of each frame, and a comparison accuracy rate of over 99%.
Evidence collection for infringement: （1) Due to the strong concealment of online infringement and the characteristics that electronic evidence is easily tampered with and disappears, original authors often find it difficult to obtain valid infringement evidence; (2) By using blockchain-based electronic evidence collection tools, it is possible to promptly discover and solidify infringement evidence at any time. Evidence can be collected online through methods such as web page screenshots and video recordings, and recorded on the blockchain. Provide reliable judicial evidence for rights protection.
Judicial Rights Protection: （1) Traditional rights protection models are time-consuming, typically taking 3-8 months, and the cost of rights protection can be as high as tens of thousands of yuan per case; (2) Based on the evidentiary value of evidence witnessed by authoritative nodes on the chain, blockchain platforms can introduce authoritative law firms, arbitration institutions, and judicial appraisal institutions to provide more efficient rights protection services throughout the process. The time limit is usually within 20 days, and the cost is only a few hundred yuan per case.
Intelligent Trading: （1) Traditional digital copyright often adopt an offline matchmaking transaction model, lacking standardized industry services. During the copyright transaction process, information is not interconnected, making it difficult to fairly and effectively distribute copyright earnings among original authors and relevant institutions. 2) Through a trusted copyright alliance chain, linked information is shared after being uploaded to the chain. Integration and data exchange can be achieved within smart contracts and business application layers, with fair and real-time revenue distribution realized through smart contracts.
05In which art fields is blockchain evidence storage technology applied?
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From the perspective of current development, Wang Chenhui stated that blockchain evidence storage technology has been applied in multiple art fields such as images, music, and design. Commercial art platforms have greatly improved the efficiency of copyright protection through blockchain evidence storage and forensics services, making the distribution and circulation of original works safer.
（1) Image domain case: ByteDance's Toutiao, which ownsWith 8 million photographers and resources, the platform has collaborated with AntChain for the first time to apply blockchain technology to the image copyright industry. After the works of platform photographers are uploaded to the chain for authentication, they will receive a notarization certificate issued by a notary institution. After judicial verification, it can be accepted as evidence of copyright ownership just like traditional copyright certificates. In addition, the copyright registration information on the blockchain platform can be transmitted to notary offices at any time. When photographers file infringement lawsuits, this can easily solve the problem of obtaining evidence for rights protection.
（2) Music domain case: Insect Sounds is based onThe UGC's digital music score operation platform currently uses the Ant Chain copyright platform for score copyright protection, creating a complete set of processes including content authentication, authorization, and rights enforcement. This greatly improves the efficiency of copyright protection and makes the distribution and circulation of musical scores safer.
（3) Design domain case: The Jellyfish Intelligent Design Platform has introduced Ant Chain copyright protection technology, benefiting tens of thousands of users behind the platform.The AI intelligent logo design service provides small, medium and micro businesses with a full-chain service including blockchain evidence storage and digital certificate issuance. The blockchain copyright protection platform enables users to obtain large-scale property rights protection, helping them avoid infringement risks.
06How should the copyright of digital art collections be regulated and applied?
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Wang Chenhui believes that the standardized application of digital art collection copyrights mainly involves three major aspects. Platforms should conduct copyright reviews and authorization checks during the collection issuance process; clarify copyright ownership during the collection trading process; and specify the usage scenarios and derivative application scenarios of collections during the collection utilization process.
oneCollection Issuance Phase: When the platform signs an agreement with the IP party, copyright and authorization reviews should be conducted.
1. When signing an agreement with the rights holder, the platform provider should confirm that the rights holder indeed has complete copyright over the relevant work, and that there are no defects such as plagiarism or exclusive licensing.
2. When granting permissions, the platform should opt for exclusive authorization to prevent other platforms or brands from creating identical digital collectibles.
twoCollection transaction phase: When the platform conducts transactions with users, it should clearly define the copyright ownership after the collection is traded.
1. The platform should draft a user agreement that clarifies the ownership of intellectual property and copyrights of digital collectibles after transactions.
2. The platform should draft a user agreement that clarifies users' infringement behaviors and the consequences they bear.
threeCollection Usage: The platform should specify the usage scenarios and derivative application scenarios for collections.
1. The platform should draft a user agreement that specifies the use scenarios and derivative application scenarios for digital collectibles.
2. The platform shall specify that after users purchase digital collectibles, they are not allowed to engage in speculation, money laundering, tokenization, financialization, securitization, or other illegal trading activities on public exchanges or privately.
07How to address the issue of copyright compliance for digital art collections?
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Finally, Wang Chenhui also stated that behind the popularity of digital art collections, there is an urgent need to standardize copyright compliance issues, which requires the joint efforts of multiple parties to promote the healthy development of the market.
（1) Museum IP and Collection Issuing Platform: The platform should assume the responsibility for content and copyright review of digital collectibles, clarify the ownership of intellectual property rights for collectibles, and comply with regulatory requirements such as compliance with limited quantities, uniqueness on the chain, and prevention of speculation.
（2) Curator: The People's Court adopts a proactive and open attitude towards blockchain evidence collection and storage, encouraging digital art creators to use trusted blockchain platforms for evidence storage and presentation.
（3) Collection Issuance Platform: The distribution platform for digital collectibles should assume legal responsibilities for technical security, network information security, and financial security, and establish a set of intellectual property review mechanisms.
（4) Collection consumers: Consumers of digital collectibles should pay attention to identifying the type and rights of the collectibles they purchase, strictly abide by platform trading rules, and avoid speculation, off-exchange trading, fraud, and other behaviors.
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