Comment On The Case Of Auction Of Qian Zhongshu’s Private Letters

The copyright and privacy right of celebrities’ has always been one of the hot topics injudicial circles and academia. In recent years, literary master have become public figures andthe focus of auctin with the development of auction industry in China. In real life, literarystars’ copyright and privacy right are frequently violated by others.Therefore, the copyrightand privacy right of literary master have been one of the most important topics in judicialcircles.This thesis is going to elaborate probe into relevant legal issues on public figure’scopyright and privacy right and make some suggestions on the improvement of auctionindustry and auction field in China with the auction of literary master Qian Zhongshu’sprivate letters in May,2013as a case study. According to the law, the original ownershiptransfer is not regarded as a copyright. Unauthorized auction of private letter violates theowner’s privacy without permission of the copyright owner. Acquiring or exercising a realright, shall abide by the law, respect social ethics, and shall not harm the public interests andthe legistimate rights and interests of others. The focus of dispute in this case is that whetherplaintiff own qualification or not, whether defendant infringe on plaintiff’s copyright andprivacy right or not.The body part including follow contents:whether letters belong to literaryworks or not, whether letters can separate copyright and ownership,confliction betweencopyright and ownership,whether unauthorized auction infringe plaintiff’s privacy right ornot,confliction between privacy right and ownership and how to protect celebrities’privacyright.By analyzing the case, which right is more prior than the others when there existsconflict among copyright, privacy right and ownership (real right) is the key to solve thiscase.