| Nowadays,China has become a country that has the largest e-sports industry in the world.Nevertheless,the e-sports related law protection has not kept pace with other countries with advanced e-sports industry such as United States,Japan,and South Korea.The relevant laws and regulations of online gaming in these countries are detailed in specific situations.South Korea even introduced regulations for video game live streaming.By contrast,China’s regulation of online gaming,especially for the protection of the video game live streaming,lacks legal support and supervision,resulting in many disputes over the intellectual property issue in the past two years.This situation can be partly attributed to the defectiveness of the TRIPS Agreement.The TRIPS Agreement only stipulates the rights of broadcasting organization and its protection,but the protection has not been extended to video game live streaming.As a country of TRIPS Agreement,China has also referred to the Agreement in the revision of the Copyright Law.Thus,the revised Copyright Law has also lacked the corresponding protection for video game live streaming.Based on the lagging of legislation,the protection of video game live streaming has caused a series of debates both in the academic and practical fields,even the court will make different judgments based on different understandings of existing laws.Therefore,it is necessary to discuss the copyright issue of video game live streaming in China.Considering the different classifications in this area,this article will focus on the different views on the video game live streaming in court,treating Professor Chuntian Liu’s "Three Compositions of Works" as the criterion.This article believes that the software,running screen and the live streaming of online games are in accord with the definition of the works in Copyright Law.The game software can be classified as computer software works based on its programming code;the generated game screens should be classified as art or text,etc.;the overall dynamic pictures can be classified as derivative works due to the creative space given to players;the live streaming can be categorized as movie-like works.These points of view will be specifically discussed below. |
