Ifeng.com was found guilty of copyright infringement when it transferred to the Chinese Super League without permission, and Sina was ordered to compensate Sina 500,000 yuan.

Reported on July 2: Due to the dispute over the broadcast rights of Chinese Super League matches, Sina.com took Phoenix to court for compensation of tens of millions of yuan. A reporter from the Beijing Morning Post learned yesterday that the Chaoyang Court found in the first instance that Phoenix.com and LeTV’s cooperation in broadcasting Chinese Super League matches infringed upon Beijing Sina Internet Information Services Co., Ltd.’s copyright in the match footage, and ruled that Beijing, the owner and operator of Phoenix.com, Tianying Jiuzhou Network Technology Co., Ltd. stopped the infringement and compensated Sina Internet Company for economic losses of 500,000 yuan. It is reported that this is the first dispute arising from the broadcast rights of sports events in this city.

Defendant who is good at broadcasting the Chinese Super League

It is reported that according to the "Articles of FIFA" and "Articles of the Chinese Football Association", the Chinese Football Association is the original owner of the rights to the Chinese Super League. On March 8, 2006, the Chinese Super League Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the Chinese Super League Company) was authorized by the Chinese Football Association to obtain the sole authorization to develop and operate the resources of the Chinese Super League, which is valid for ten years, including television, radio, Internet and various resources of the Chinese Super League. Multimedia copyright.

On March 7, 2012, the Chinese Super League Company and Sina Internet Company signed an agreement, stipulating that Sina Internet Company has the exclusive right to broadcast Chinese Super League videos in the field of portal websites for a period from March 1, 2012 to March 1, 2014 day. To avoid ambiguity, the agreement also specifically stipulates that multiple Internet portals that have the same business or compete with Sina.com are not allowed to broadcast or record Chinese Super League games in any form, including Phoenix.com.

In September last year, Sina Internet filed a lawsuit claiming that on August 1, 2013, the company discovered that ifeng.com marked and provided live broadcasts of Luneng VS R&F and Shenxin VS Sainty games in a prominent position on the homepage of the Chinese Super League channel. Fang Tianying Jiuzhou Company, owned and operated by Phoenix.com, illegally broadcast the live video of the Chinese Super League without legal authorization, which infringed the company's copyright in the sports event program involved and constituted unfair competition. In addition, Tianying Jiuzhou Company has grabbed economic benefits and diverted user attention and website traffic. It requested a court order to stop the infringement and claim for economic losses of 10 million yuan.

Tianying Jiuzhou Company believes that Sina Internet Company’s lawsuit has no basis in law. Football events are not protected by copyright law, and having rights to sports events does not necessarily have rights to sports events programs. Sina Internet Company has not obtained the author's authorization, and the authorization it obtained contains major flaws.

LeTV, as the third party in the lawsuit, denied the existence of joint infringement, saying that although the company had cooperated with Tianying Jiuzhou Company on the domain names involved, they did not cooperate on the events involved, and the events broadcast by Phoenix.com did not originate from LeTV.

The first instance judgment constitutes infringement

The court held that according to the "FIFA Charter", "Chinese Football Association Charter" and authorization procedures, Sina Internet Company has the exclusive right to broadcast, disseminate and play the Chinese Super League and all its videos in the field of portal websites during the contract period. rights and the right to take all legal measures to prevent third parties from illegally using the above videos and obtain compensation.

It can be seen from the network address of the event involved in the case and the entry status displayed on the webpage that the event was broadcast under the subdomain address of LeTV. That means LeTV has control over the event involved in the case. Tianying Jiuzhou Company used links as a technical means to divide labor and cooperate with LeTV to jointly provide event broadcasts to Internet users without permission. Ifeng.com's broadcasting behavior infringed on the plaintiff's rights to broadcast the events involved.

In addition, the formation of the broadcast picture is the result of the selection and arrangement of multiple shots. Different camera settings, picture selection and arrangement, cutting and other means will lead to different final pictures. It is a kind of creative labor and different The visual effects reflect its originality. Therefore, the picture formed by the recording should be recognized as a work. The cooperation between LeTV and Phoenix in broadcasting infringed the copyright of the plaintiff's works on the images of the event involved.

Because the defendant’s broadcasting behavior has been regulated by copyright law, the court did not support the plaintiff’s claim for unfair competition. In the end, the first instance ruled that Tianying Jiuzhou Company should stop broadcasting Chinese Super League games from March 1, 2012 to March 1, 2014, publish a statement on the homepage of ifeng.com for seven consecutive days to eliminate the negative impact, and at the same time compensate Sina Internet Company for its economic losses. 500,000 yuan. After the verdict was announced, Tianying Jiuzhou Company made it clear that it would appeal.

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