[Shanghai Law Journal] Farewell to the "Age of Free KTV" - Shanghai Intellectual Property Court Closes128 Cases InvolvingCopyright Infringement at KTV

November 9, 2018 Shanghai Law JournalPage A4

Trainee Journalist: Zhang Yehe

As onlinespreading becomesincreasingly convenient, the reproduction right and the right of showing of musical works have been susceptible to frequent piracy in this digital era. The day before, the journalist learned from the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court (hereinafter referred to as SIPC) that since its establishment on December 28, 2014, SIPC had accepted 228 cases of copyright infringement at KTV, and up to now, 128 of them havebeen tried and closed in 2018 alone. The compensation amountsare gradually on the rise, which marks the end of the "age of free KTV". In the future, the KTV operators willhave to pay for the copyrights of songs.

More than 90% of KTV Operators are Convicted of Infringement

Recently, China Audio-video Copyright Association issued an announcement to the public, requiringthe service providers of KTV equipment and system (VOD) as well asKTV operators to delete some of the works not managed by it, and more than 6,000 songs have been removed. A tossed stone stirs up a thousand waves. The journalist took a look at the list of songs involved in the judgment document, and found that some well-knownclassic songs such as Peach Blossoms,Look Over Here, Girl, So Clear is My Heart and modern online musicwere both included in the involved list. The copyrights of a wide range of songs have been infringed.

On the list of KTV venues involved in this type of cases judged and closed by SIPC, there are manybig names such as Holiday KTV and Shanghai Galacity, and there are also some less knownones.More than 90% of theseKTV operators have been convicted of infringement.

SIPC has found that copyright infringements at KTV mainly feature high homogeneity of lawsuits and difficulty in identifying infringement facts. Moreover, only a small proportion of the accused subjects of tort appear in court and many of them end up losing the lawsuits. Most of the KTV sites accused have no idea whether the copyrights of some musical works aresubject to protection.

Copyright Infringement Cases at KTV are Increasing Year by Year

According to the statisticsof cases received by SIPC each year, the number of this type of cases are on the rise year by year. On one hand, many KTV operators fail to obey the law. According to relevant laws and regulations, KTV operators should have started to voluntarily pay copyright royalties since January 1, 2007, but in reality, very few KTV operators voluntarily pay suchroyalties. Some operators believe the chance of being sued for infringement is very slim and so leave things to luck. They only have eyes forshort-term economic profitsand close their eyes toregulations. On the other hand, many publishing enterprises of musical works now entrust China Audio-video Copyright Association as agency in litigation. It is an indisputable fact that these publishing enterprises are more active to safeguard their legal rights in more standardized ways once infringements arediscovered, leading to a sharprise of such cases.

With the increase of infringement cases year by year, the amounts of compensations for infringementsimposedby the court are also increasing. According to the cases closed as well as the number and popularity of the songs involved, generallya compensation of RMB 300 is ordered to be paid for one song. If the song is popular, a compensation of RMB 1,000-2,000has to be paid. If lots of songs are involved, the compensation often total around RMB 40,000-50,000. In a case involving Shanghai Mindi Entertainment Co., Ltd and China Audio-video Copyright Association, the former was ordered to pay a compensation of more than RMB 100,000.

Showing Resolution to Protect Copyright

The increasing amounts of compensations reflect the respect for copyright owners by the society and the strengthening judicial protection. It also mirrorsthe courts’ resolution to boost the cultural industry and unswervingly strengthen the protection of copyrights.

Confronted with the high frequency of copyright infringements at KTV, SIPC suggests that the government, market entities and the public fulfill their responsibilities respectively. Relevant government departments and industry associations should make concerted efforts to strengthen publicity and supervision of intellectual property rights protection, establish a stable channel to make payment of copyright royalties get into a groove, thus creating a stable and mature market environment for enterprises. The operators of KTV should also raise their awareness of rights protection, and take reasonable measures to prevent possible infringements of intellectual properties. The courtswill step up efforts inprotecting copyrights of musical works, play the leading role in judicial protection and increase the cost of infringement. As such, we can set the trend for protectingmusic copyrights and intellectual propertiesin society.