Oriented The Quasi-common Ownership Of Thinking:The Civil Protection Of Joint Portrait

In this constantly changing world, digital technology has been widely applied due to the development of science, which makes the production process of images or videos easier. The spread mode becomes more convenient and the spreading range also gets wider.The production process of images and videos with advances in communication technology help to promote the development of social economy and make people exposed to these products more conveniently and quickly.However, when films and television programs bring us benefits and conveniences, they also give rise to legal problems related to the protection of joint portraits, such as how to protect the right of each individual in the joint portrait, how to allocate each individual’s right of portrait in the joint portrait and how to coordinate the proposition among the subjects of right in making use of the joint portrait, etc. These problems bring lots of inconveniences to the judicial practice.In recent years, cases related to joint right of portrait have been very common. However, the current civil laws and regulations in our country lack specified provisions for joint portrait. Opinions among the theorists in the science of law are divided on how to protect and coordinate each individual’s right in the joint portrait and whether specified legal system should be set up to adjust the legal relations caused by joint portraits. When local courts hear this kind of case, the trial results are often different for a lack of laws and unified judicial criteria. With the increase of people’s awareness of civil rights protection and the advances in science and civilization, more and more new rights emerge. In order to satisfy people’s needs to protect their own rights to the full, the quasi-common ownership of portrait interests should be brought into the protection of portrait rights as a new form of right. This paper is based on our country’s judicial decisions on the related cases of portrait rights disputes. It combines the theories concerning portrait rights protection home and abroad and deals with the coordination and protection of each subject’s right in the joint portrait from the perspective of quasi-common ownership system.In the first part, it proposed questions through the case of Yao Ming filing a lawsuit against Coca Cola. After the introduction and a detailed analysis of the case, it concludes that "personal portrait" in modern society has been already above its inherent fundamental scope, and it has become an important part of the political, economic and cultural activities. In recent years, many cases related to the so called "group portrait right" have sprang up and aroused a heated debate between theorists in judicial practice and theorists in science of laws.The second part talks about the definition of citizens’ portrait rights and interests. Based on the questions proposed, it analyzes the connotation and denotation of citizen’s portrait rights. It analyses the definitions of portrait, portrait right and portrait interest, their characteristics and properties, as well as whether portrait interest has the feasibility of application to quasi-common ownership. Then it conducts a negativity analysis of the so called group portrait rights by quoting the judicial adjudication cases. The group should enjoy portrait rights as the subject. Subjects of rights related to group portraits should be the each individual in them instead of the group. What is more, the concept of group portrait is invalid, which should be replaced by joint portrait.In the third part, it discusses the quasi-common ownership of portrait interest and the connotation of portrait rights in the quasi-common legal system. It then gives theoretical thought to the quasi-common ownership of portrait interest. Since it is said that the essence of group portrait is the quasi-common ownership of portrait interest, then it is necessary to figure out the definition, characteristics, property of the quasi-common ownership of portrait interest, as well as its legal provisions.The fourth part expounds the conception of quasi-common ownership legal system of portrait interest. It first puts stress on the current necessity and far-reaching significance of the establishment of the quasi-common ownership system of portrait interest. It further points out that the property interest of portrait right should be the premise of quasi-common ownership of portrait interest. It is worth noticing that portrait right’s fundamental attribute--- personality right should be taken into consideration when introducing co-ownership system to deal with joint portrait problems. Finally, consulting the quasi-common ownership system in our country’s property law, it proposes suggestions on the basic principles of quasi-common ownership system of portrait interest. Special form of co-ownership system---quasi-common ownership system is adopted to deal with the legal problems caused by joint portrait.The subjects of right of quasi-common owned portrait interest are still natural person. Legal persons or other organizations could not the subjects of right in this right. The quasi-common ownership of portrait interest is established through the co-ownership system by referring to that in property law. Basic principles in co-ownership system apply to the quasi-common ownership system of portrait interest in theory, but the latter also possesses its own specific principles. In handling the legal relationship concerning the quasi-common ownership of portrait interest, specific principles in the legal system of quasi-common ownership should also be observed, in addition to the basic principles in co-ownership system.