Disputes involving online live broadcasts are frequent, is the language style of live broadcast protected by copyright?
At present, in some disputes involving online live broadcasting, there is an opinion that the language style of live broadcasting is also protected by copyright under certain conditions. This view is controversial in the industry.
In copyright law, the dichotomy between thought and expression is not only the basic principle for distinguishing between works and non-works, but also the basic principle for distinguishing between protected and unprotected elements in a work. Article 2 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty, "Scope of Copyright Protection", makes it clear that copyright protection extends to expression, not to ideas, processes, methods of operation or mathematical concepts themselves. Article 6 of China's "Regulations on the Protection of Computer Software" stipulates that "the protection of software copyright in these Regulations shall not extend to the ideas, processing processes, operation methods or mathematical concepts used in the development of software" is also an expression of this principle. According to the dichotomy between thought and expression, it is necessary to distinguish between the content of the work and the creative techniques that form the content of the work, for example, the use of salt sprinkle method in painting to express the ethereal nature of snowflakes, and the use of light gray color to emphasize the oppression of atmosphere;The use of contrast, foreshadowing, and contrast in literary writing all belong to the list of creative techniques or creative techniques. They are not the content itself and are naturally not protected by copyright law.
Even if it is part of the work, if it is too abstract, it will fall into the category of "thought" and will not be protected. On the one hand, "creativity" that tends to be simple due to abstract content is not worthy of protection, and if it is protected, it will hinder the free creation of othersOn the other hand, it is also because the poorer the content, the more likely it is that it is already there, common in society, and should be in the public domain.
Whether or not a language style constitutes a work depends first of all on the meaning of the language style. In rhetoric, language style is usually defined as "the way and method of speech activity", or "the way in which individuals integrate in a specific creative process", or "the way in which ideas are expressed through the mediation of language". In social life, people understand "style" more often as a certain quality, that is, a certain constant, especially recognizable characteristic that is exhibited on a person or a certain thing. "Language style" refers to "the overall aesthetic style conveyed by the language elements and means of language expression in the personal aesthetic taste of the speaker of the language", or "the style and atmosphere of the communicative participants using the characteristics of the means of language expression under the guidance of subjective and objective factors". For example, people often use "fresh and elegant" to describe Li Bai's language style, and "depressed and frustrated" to describe Du Fu's language style. To be more specific, language style is reflected in a person's more constant choice of language expressions such as word choice, personal pronoun use, tone of voice, punctuation, etc.
The so-called live broadcast language style refers to the expressions and elements used by the anchor in the process of online live broadcasting, which is not only related to the anchor's personal language ability, but also subject to the external online live broadcast environment. "The determination of the style of a language, and the selection and arrangement of language materials in this way and not in that way, are closely related to and guided by certain communicative purposes, tasks, and certain communicative environments. For example, the language style of a well-known anchor in the live broadcast room is colloquial, often using exclamation sentences, short sentences, exaggerated tones, and frequent mixing of language codes, such as "Oh my god, buy it!"."I open it, you don't believe it, you're going to give me 420 yuan right away, my mom, it's beautiful, it's very beautiful" and so on. However, whether it is the "overall aesthetic style", "style and atmosphere", or the obvious mixed expression of language codes, the language style of the live broadcast cannot be allowed to become a work and be protected by the copyright law.
*: Intellectual Property News.