"Gu Amo Movie Review" Challenges the Bottom Line of Reasonable Reference?
2018/07/13
The Chinese film critic Gu Amo, who has a large amount of fans on video sharing platforms such as Youku, bilibili and Sina Weibo, has recently provoked a copyright lawsuit. According to media reports, audio-visual platforms like Taiwan's KKTV accused Gu Amo's "X Minutes Take You to the Movie" series of short video movie reviews of adapting their copyrighted films without authorization, thereby infringing their copyright. Moreover, some films were reviewed "worthless,” which affects the filmmakers’ profits. In this regard, relevant departments of China Taiwan investigated and affirmed that Gu Amo’s actions constituted copyright infringements and filed a lawsuit against him, but Gu Amo argued that his actions were reasonable and did not involve infringement.
The case has aroused widespread concern in the industry. Movie reviews in the form of short video bear the legal risk of misinterpreting the film’s connotation, which in turn leads to the loss of viewers, producers and copyright holders. But to judge whether a secondary creation constitutes infringement, it is crucial to consider whether it affects the potential market from multiple angles as well. Government guidelines on the copyright of parodies are still awaited.
Excerpted and Translated from China IP News (Chinese Version)
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