Research On The Fair Use Of User-generated Content

User-generated content is creative content created by non-professional users that is published and spread publicly on the Internet.In the Internet era,user-generated content has gradually become an important means for the public to communicate culture and ideas.It has extremely high value in social,economic,cultural,and other aspects.In practice,users often use the prior works of others for creation,but their use behavior is generally without the permission of the rights holder and there are obstacles to fair use,which has a high possibility of infringing on the copyright of others.The problem of user-generated content infringing copyright is difficult to solve under the current legal system in China.The consideration for the exclusive rights granted by the State to the copyright holders is the alienation of part of the use value of the works by copyright holders.This use value is mainly reflected in the fair use system.However,the legal rights of copyright holders are constantly expanding under the promotion of modern technology.But the use value alienated by the copyright holders has not been correspondingly increased.Fair use is constantly weakening under the dual pressure of the copyright law and technical measures.The fundamental reason for the failure of copyright regulations on user-generated content is the imbalance of interests caused by the continuous expansion of copyright and the weakening of fair use.Therefore,it is necessary to find a way to balance the interests of all parties within the framework of copyright law.As the most powerful mechanism for regulating the balance of interests,fair use is precisely such a feasible path.The high value of user-generated content itself has led to corresponding institutional requirements.Experts,scholars,copyright holders,platform service providers and other relevant parties attempt to solve the copyright problem of user-generated content by establishing private rules.However,the existing private rules have their own limitations and they are not suitable for comprehensive promotion.And private rules have not truly solved the problem of the imbalance of interests among various parties involved in user-generated content under the network environment.User-generated content conforms to the scope of application and legislative value of the fair use system,and its inclusion in fair use is also in line with the consideration of the balance of interests in copyright law.Based on the actual situation in China,this article analyzes the advantages of adjusting user-generated content through fair use systems,and analyzes the models in foreign country countries of using fair use systems to regulate use-generated content issues.There are two viable ways to interpret the use of existing works by user-generated content into fair use.The first one is to reinterpret the existing fair use terms.Specifically,it includes a breakthrough explanation of the ’personal use’ clauses that existed in the pre Internet era to adapt to the new characteristics of personal use in the Internet era.Besides,introduce ’transformative use’ into the ’appropriate citation’clause,freeing it from the limitations of citation volume and non-commercial use.The second one is to increase the types of fair use.Establish non-commercial user-generated content as a type of fair use behaviour through legislation at appropriate times,which can compensate for the lack of certainty and predictability in the abstract interpretation path.