Research On The Attribution Of Character Image Rights In Film And Television Works

With the rapid development of the film and television industry,while the frequency of commercial use of character images continues to increase,the number of infringement cases related to the commercial use of character images is also increasing in judicial practice.The reason is that the current Copyright Law only makes general provisions on the ownership of the rights of the character images of film and television works,and in practice,there are different adjudication views of the courts on the ownership of the character image right.At this stage,although the Civil Code stipulates the right to use the portrait license of civil subjects,the ownership of the rights of the character image,which is one of the constituent elements of film and television works,should have a closer connection with the Copyright Law,in addition to being related to the Personality Rights Part of the Civil Code.In the sense of the Copyright Law,the premise of talking about the ownership of character image rights should be characterized.Although the current Copyright Law replaces the previous closed model on the types of works,it adopts an open model,giving the possibility of character images constituting new types of works.However,when determining a new type of work,the connotation and extension of the type of work already listed shall be grasped,and the determination shall be made strictly based on the constituent elements of the work.At the same time,the type of work of the character image of film and television works shall be clarified by referring to the criteria for judging the copyright ability of foreign character images.By summarizing and sorting out the situations in China’s judicial practice at this stage,the ownership of the same type of role image is inconsistent,this paper analyzes the types of character images,starting from the character images of non-conventional and conventional film and television works.For the character image of non-contractual film and television works,the article argues that the right to the appearance visual character image belongs to the author,the right to the single frame of the story character image belongs to the producer and the portrait rights holder,and the right to "character makeup" of the story character image belongs to the author or portrait rights holder.For the character image of contractual film and television works,agreeing rights to the producer is the best way to agree on ownership.