Short video background music should not be misused. Be careful of copyright infringement.

　　(Reporter Yu Jianhua correspondent Lu Xuan) For short videos, background music helps to set off the atmosphere and render emotions. However, it is worth noting that short video creation should have boundaries, and you should 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 reminded the short video creators.

　　The musical work "You look good when you smile" was sung by the public because of its catchy lyrics and relaxed melody, and won many awards in China. 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 Smile Really Beautiful", obtained evidence by time stamp, and a bank in Wenzhou released a short video of a fun sports carnival for employees in Tik Tok platform account with "You Smile Really Beautiful" as the background music, with 21 likes.

　　The cultural company believes that the bank released the short video about the case on the Tik Tok platform without its authorization and without paying any copyright royalties, and used the original sound of the song about the case, which infringed the copyright owner, producers of audio and video recordings and performers’ rights of reproduction and information network dissemination.

　　On July 8, 2022, the cultural company sued a bank in Wenzhou to the Lucheng District Court, demanding that it delete the short video involved in the case and compensate the economic loss of 50,000 yuan.

　　During the trial of the case, a bank in Wenzhou deleted the short video involved in the case. It argues that the video content is a video record of the internal sports meeting of the bank, and there is no publicity related to the main business, no profit purpose and no intentional infringement subjectively.

　　After the trial, the court held that the defendant’s bank used the music works involved in the case as short video background music without the permission of the copyright owner, and uploaded them to the Tik Tok platform, so that the public could browse at the time and place selected by the individual. This behavior infringed on the right of information network dissemination of the above-mentioned music works and should bear the legal responsibility of compensation for losses.

　　In view of the fact that the cultural company failed to provide evidence to prove the actual losses it suffered as a result of infringement, and also failed to provide evidence to prove the benefits obtained by the defendant’s bank’s infringement, the court comprehensively considered the types of works involved, the popularity of works, the time of infringement, the nature of infringement and other factors, and decided that a bank in Wenzhou compensated the cultural company for its economic losses and paid reasonable expenses to stop the infringement, totaling 4,500 yuan.

　　■ Judge’s statement ■

　　How can short video creators avoid infringement when using other people’s music works? Generally speaking, in the user agreement, the short video platform will require the user to ensure that the uploaded audio and other materials are original or legally authorized by the user. That is to say, without the legal authorization of music, it may constitute infringement to make a video by itself and add a background music upload platform.

　　For example, after uploading a video, it is set to a mode that is not open to specific objects, such as private video, and the actor can reasonably use the system for exemption. However, if the video is released and displayed to the public, whether it is used for personal purposes or commercial purposes, it is already out of the premise of reasonable use, and the actor needs to bear tort liability. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid using unauthorized music works. If you need to use music works to create short videos, you should directly use the music provided by the short video platform and publish it on the platform.

　　Generally speaking, the music provided by the short video platform itself will be licensed through direct purchase and cooperation with the copyright platform, and then the platform will authorize its users to make videos. However, users still need to pay attention to the following three points in the process of using music:

　　First, short videos made by users can only be used within the scope of this platform. If they are moved to other platforms for publication, they will still constitute infringement on music rights holders. At the same time, users must use the music provided by the short video platform, but not the music with unknown sound source. In the above case, a bank combined music from unknown sources with its own short video and uploaded it to the Tik Tok platform, which constituted infringement.

　　Second, although most of the music provided by the platform has been authorized, it is not absolute. The scope of music authorization depends entirely on the right holder, but the user himself has no way of knowing. When selecting platform music, it is still necessary for the user to further confirm whether the music is authorized through the functions such as "copyright inspection" provided by the platform party, so that the platform party can be held fully responsible in case of disputes.

　　Third, users make short videos only for personal use. Short video platforms are not responsible for users’ use for commercial purposes, such as commercial advertisements and corporate publicity. Commercial use still requires users to obtain the commercial copyright authorization of specific songs themselves.