Discuss The Protection Of Copyright Of The Film-and-television Works

Protecting the copyright of film and television scripts is very important for thedevelopment of the industry of film and television and plays a positive role inpromoting the spread of culture. But the copyright law of our country on scriptsprotection is not clear. The disputes of scripts copyright usually are script plagiarism,new disputations of the right of authorship, writer’s rights on the subsequent use ofworks etc. But the copyright law of our country can not solve these problems. Tosolve these problems, we have to research the copyright protection of film andtelevision scripts.The paper starts from the case and elaborates on the key problems appeared inpractice and researches shortcomings of the copyright law of our country on scriptsprotection, then put forward countermeasures to solve relevant problems.In addition to the introduction, this paper is divided into three parts. There aremore than20000words.Part one, case summary and the primary disputes. Firstly, the paper introducesthe case summary, then summaries the main controversies: the standard of scriptplagiarism, the disputation of the right of the writer’s authorship, writer’s rights on thesubsequent use of works. The copyright law of our country do not rule on the standardof script plagiarism, only regards it as a behavior of copyright infringement. ThePeople’s Republic of China Copyright Law can not solve the new disputations on theright of the writer’s authorship, such as how to express the writer’s right of authorship,in which position, in which method, in what order. The law on the relationshipbetween the writer and the film and television work is not clear, so in practice, we donot know if the produces should get the consent of the writer for the subsequent use ofthe works, such as the work adaptation, the novel distribution etc.Part two, legally analysis of the disputations. This part mainly analyses threemain questions: firstly, the distinguishing standard of plagiarism. The academiccircles don’t have a standard on the plagiarism distinguishing, the main standards arefollowing: time judgment rule, comparison judgment rule, research judgment rule,degree judgment rule etc. In practice, there are three standards, that is “contact plussubstantial similarity standard” and “originality standard” and “three steps judgmentstandard”. There are difficulties in the use of the three standards, such as, what contents constitute substantial similarity? When judging originality, we may payattention to the whole scripts but ignore the writing process, or only compare the partbut ignore the whole. In the use of the “three steps judgment standard”, how to tell thethought from the expression is a difficulty. Secondly, about the writer’s right ofauthorship. The new phenomenons of infringement of the right of authorship arefollowings: to express the writer’s right of authorship, in which position, in whichmethod, in what order. Our county’s copyright law do not define those questions, onlythe judicial interpretation of the supreme court, the relevant court’s file and the file ofthe administration of radio and television have relevant provisions about the problems.Finally, about the relationship between the writer and the film and television work.The paper analyses two kinds of legislative model on the international, that isderivative work model and cooperative model. The law of our county on therelationship between the writer and the film and television work and “the secondarycompensation” are not clear. Though the draft amendment to the copyright law makessome supplementary provision, some problems need to solve, such as the paymentsubject, the nature of the right etc.Part three, through the case we make it clear that how the law is applicable tosolve problems. This part analyses the law application on three questions which arementioned in part two. When our country does not make regulations on thoseproblems, how to solve the relevant disputes appropriately and reasonably. At thesame time, this part analyses the handling result of the case.