Reflection on Photographer’s Infringement Case: Lawyer Reveals Visual China’s Improper Rights Protection and Potential Fraud

The well-known photographer’s rights protection incident in China caused widespread discussion on the morning of August 16. The two parties started a dispute over the copyright issue of the picture.

In response, Senior Partner of Shanghai Dabang Law Firm, Intellectual Property Rights Lawyer You Yunting told Sina Technology: “Looking at Visual China’s statement, they only have the right to sell their works but not the copyright authorization and corresponding rights to protect their rights. In this case, they exercised their rights to protect their copyrights against the image users. , requiring the other party to pay hundreds of yuan per picture authorization fee based on past usage. The nature of this behavior, I think it is a non-rights protection. If it is done out of negligence, it is suspected of impersonation and infringement of the copyright of the pictures. People's rights. If it is intentional and is a large-scale and common behavior of the company, in addition to civil infringement, it will be suspected of fraud and may be subject to administrative penalties. If the circumstances are serious, such as concealing the facts of rights protection and not paying the copyright owner Sharing fees may even be suspected of fraud.”

Yesterday, the famous photographer @jeff disclosed his starry sky journey experience on Weibo, claiming that he had received a call from Visual China, accusing his official account of infringement. Used 173 of their photos and demanded compensation of more than 80,000 yuan! Jeff emphasized that he has never cooperated with Visual China, nor uploaded their pictures, and asked Visual China to give a reasonable explanation

In this regard, Visual China responded that after preliminary verification, the pictures involved were sold by the photographer's authorized photo library Stocktrek Images, which in turn authorized the relevant pictures to Getty Images for sale. As the exclusive partner of Getty Images in mainland China, Visual China has complete sales rights, including the related pictures involved. The sales authorization chain of the pictures involved is clear and complete.

Today, jeff once again posted that he does not accept the view of Visual China. It also stated that has verified with Stocktrek, and Stocktrek has clearly informed Visual China that it has no right to sell its works, nor does it have any copyright to its works. Getty also has no right to sublicense its work. "There is no misunderstanding here. Up to now, you are still illegally selling my works online, lying to me and others that you own the copyright of the works and claiming compensation. Please stop your infringement immediately!!!"

#jeff As the photographer of the photo, will his and his company's use of his photo involve infringement? Lawyer You Yunting said that if the photographer of the photo authorizes the rights of the photo to a third party in the form of an exclusive license, he should also obtain the third party's authorization when using it himself. But if the authorization is just an ordinary license , or exclusive license and retain the right to use it, you can continue to use .

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