For short videos, background music helps to enhance the atmosphere and enhance emotions. But it is worth noting that short video creation should have boundaries and be careful not to accidentally step on the "pit" of background music infringement. Recently, a case concluded by the People's Court of Lucheng District, Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province has provided a wake-up call to the creators of short videos. The musical work 'You Laugh Really Well' has been widely sung and won many awards in China due to its catchy lyrics and relaxed melody. On June 20, 2022, a cultural development company in Beijing (hereinafter referred to as the cultural company), as the copyright owner of the music work "You Laugh It's Good to See", obtained evidence through the time stamp, and a bank in Wenzhou released a 170 second short video of the staff fun sports festival in the account of the Tiktok platform, with "You Laugh It's Good to See" as the background music and 21 likes. The culture company believed that the bank, without its authorization and permission and without paying any copyright royalties, released the short videos involved in the case on the Tiktok platform without authorization, and used the original sound of the songs involved in the case, which infringed the copyright owner, producers of audio and video recordings, and performers' reproduction rights and information network transmission rights. On July 8, 2022, a cultural company filed a lawsuit against a bank in Wenzhou to the Lucheng District Court, demanding that it delete the short video involved in the case and compensate 50000 yuan for economic losses. During the trial of the case, the defendant, a bank in Wenzhou, deleted the short video related to the case. It argues that the video content is an internal video recording of the bank's sports meet, without any promotion related to the main business, without profit purpose, and subjectively without intentional infringement. After hearing the case, the court held that the defendant's bank, without the permission of the copyright owner, used the music works involved in the case as short video background music and uploaded it to the Tiktok platform, so that the public could browse at the time and place selected by individuals. This behavior infringed the information network transmission right of the above music works, and should bear the legal liability for damages. Considering that the cultural company failed to provide evidence to prove the actual losses suffered by the infringement and the benefits obtained by the defendant bank from the infringement, the court comprehensively considered factors such as the type of work involved, the popularity of the work, the time of infringement, and the nature of the infringement, and determined that a bank in Wenzhou compensated the cultural company for economic losses and reasonable expenses paid to stop the infringement, totaling 4500 yuan. How can short video creators avoid infringement by using other people's music works? Generally speaking, short video platforms require users to ensure that the uploaded audio and other materials are original or have obtained legal authorization in user agreements. Creating videos and adding background music to upload platforms without obtaining legal authorization for music may constitute infringement. If a video is uploaded and set as a private video or other non disclosure mode to unspecified objects, the perpetrator can still reasonably use the system to exempt liability. However, if the video is published and displayed to the public, whether for personal or commercial purposes, it has already deviated from the premise of "for personal learning, research, or appreciation" as a reasonable use, and the perpetrator needs to bear infringement liability. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid using unauthorized music works. If you need to create short videos using music works, you should directly use the short video platform
Edit：Ying Ying Responsible editor：Shen Chen
Source：rmfyb.chinacourt.org
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