Following the victories of Zhou Dongyu and Jin Dong, Ge You and Zhang Yishan have filed lawsuits again. Is Hujiang Online School so arrogant?
[4] Compiled from: Red Star News
Hujiang Education has recently been embroiled in a series of legal issues, several of which involve celebrities. From August to December 2021, multiple lawsuits concerning tort liability disputes and portrait rights disputes involving Hujiang Education went to trial. The plaintiffs in these cases include Ge You, Zhang Yishan, Xiao Yang, Xie Mengwei, and others. This is not the first time celebrities have faced off against Hujiang Education in court. As early as 2017, actress Zhou Dongyu sued Hujiang Education and won the case.
Case review
On July 25, 2017, Hujiang Education published an article titled "<Nothing But You>: Zhou Dongyu and Zhang Yishan Have Amazing Chemistry, So Sweet!" on its official WeChat public account "Hujiang Wangxiao." The article used 12 portrait images of Zhou Dongyu and also contained information such as "The world is so big, I want to see what's different out there. Learn a language this summer" and "Selected quality courses, 24-hour flash sales with great value."
[4] Zhou Dongyu's side argued that Hujiang Education, without permission, used her portrait for commercial promotion, which constituted unauthorized use of another's portrait for profit, suspected of infringing on her portrait rights. Additionally, the placement of the portrait and related content led to misunderstandings, lowering her social evaluation, and suspected of infringing on her reputation rights.
On December 1, 2018, the Haidian District People's Court of Beijing ruled that Hujiang Education must, within ten days after the judgment took effect, continuously publish an apology statement for seven days on the WeChat public account "Hujiang Wangxiao" involved in the case, issue an apology to the plaintiff Zhou Dongyu, and compensate Zhou Dongyu a total of 25,200 yuan for economic losses and reasonable expenses.
Article 1019 of the Civil Code
No organization or individual may infringe upon another person's right to portrait by means of vilification, defacement, or forgery using information technology. Without the consent of the portrait right holder, no one may produce, use, or publicly disclose the portrait of the right holder, unless otherwise provided by law. Without the consent of the portrait right holder, the owner of a portrait work may not use or publicly disclose the portrait of the right holder by means of publication, reproduction, distribution, rental, exhibition, or otherwise.
[1] The author's perspective
As can be seen from the above legal provisions, the Civil Code removes the condition of “for profit-making purposes,” but also provides several exceptions for “reasonable use without the consent of the portrait rights holder,” such as for personal study, news reporting, safeguarding public interests, or protecting the lawful rights and interests of the portrait rights holder. In other words, apart from these “exceptions,” making a person’s portrait public without their permission is unlawful, regardless of whether it is for commercial use.
From this series of cases, it is evident that careless marketing may lead to lawsuits. In fact, educational and training institutions are not only for-profit corporate entities, but the content they publish on social platforms like WeChat public accounts and Weibo is often related to education and training. Therefore, they must not only comply with the above Civil Code provisions but also adhere to Article 24 of the Advertising Law. In summary, when promoting or marketing, if using another person's portrait rights, prior consent must be obtained, and attention should also be paid to any special restrictions in the relevant industry to avoid further disputes.
