[4] Compiled from: Shaodong City People's Court, Hunan High Court
 
[5] An English online course worth 699 yuan was sold for only 4.98 yuan? It turned out that the author's recorded English teaching videos were placed on an online shopping platform for low-price sales by others... Helpless, the author sued the court to stop the infringement. Recently, the Shaodong City People's Court concluded a copyright contract dispute case.

 
 

Case review
[6] The plaintiff, Han, is a teaching professional engaged in foreign language work. He recorded teaching videos in oral form and uploaded them to Xuelang.com for public publication and sale, with prices ranging from 998 yuan to 699 yuan. The course had tens of thousands of enrolled students.
 
Han discovered that a merchant was selling products online that infringed on his rights to the above works, so he commissioned a notary firm to issue a notarial certificate stating that on a certain online shopping platform's store, the price was 4.98 yuan and sales were 12 items. After payment, the store's customer service sent a Baidu Netdisk sharing file URL. Clicking the URL led to Baidu Netdisk to view and download the video courses in the folder, and clicking the files revealed the English courses taught by the plaintiff, Han. The plaintiff spent 1,500 yuan on notary fees for this. According to merchant information disclosed by the Pinduoduo platform's customer service, the store name's operator was the defendant, Yang.
 
Han then filed a lawsuit, requesting that the defendants, Yang and a Shanghai company, immediately cease the infringement, remove the relevant products and links, publicly apologize in the media, and demand that defendant Yang bear punitive damages and compensate the plaintiff for reasonable expenses incurred in investigation, evidence collection, stopping the infringement, and hiring a lawyer, totaling 40,000 yuan, with the Shanghai company bearing joint and several liability for the second compensation item against defendant Yang.
 
 
[1] Court Opinion
The court found after trial that this case was a copyright contract dispute. The plaintiff, Han, created and publicly published his work in oral form, which was an original intellectual achievement produced through his thoughts and creativity, and should be protected by law.
 
Defendant Yang, operating a store on a certain online shopping platform, sold netdisk links to the above courses. After purchase, consumers could download and view the video courses via the netdisk links, and the content of the video courses was consistent with the works created by plaintiff Han. This act infringed on the plaintiff's reproduction rights, distribution rights, and information network dissemination rights over the works in question, and defendant Yang should bear corresponding infringement liability.
 
Han's request for a judgment ordering the defendant to immediately cease infringing on his copyright (reproduction rights, distribution rights, and information network dissemination rights), i.e., stop selling and disseminating the plaintiff's teaching audio and video on the online shopping platform, and remove the relevant products and links, was supported by the court in accordance with the law.
 
Regarding the amount of compensation, statutory compensation was applied in this case. The court comprehensively considered factors such as the type of the plaintiff's work, the scale of Yang's online store operations, sales volume, the nature of the infringement, and the plaintiff's reasonable expenses in stopping the infringement, and discretionarily determined that defendant Yang should compensate the plaintiff for economic losses and reasonable rights protection expenses totaling 20,000 yuan.
 
 
《[1] The People's Republic of ChinaCopyright Law
Article 10: Copyright includes the following personal and property rights:
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The right of reproduction, that is, the right to produce one or more copies of a work by means of printing, photocopying, rubbing, recording, videotaping, re-recording, re-photographing, digitization, etc.;
(6) The right of distribution, that is, the right to provide the original or copies of a work to the public by sale or gift;
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The right of communication through information networks, that is, the right to provide the work to the public by wire or wireless means, enabling the public to access the work at a time and place of their choosing;
……
 
 
[1] The author's perspective
With the rapid development of the internet era, online courses have gradually become a major force in the education sector, and many copyright holders are increasingly recognizing the importance of intellectual property rights. Therefore, strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights has become particularly important in recent years. Reproducing or copying others' copyrighted works, and publicly disseminating and selling them, not only affects the sales of legitimate works and infringes on the rights of the rights holders, but also disrupts social public order. Rights holders who suffer infringement should immediately collect and preserve evidence, and if necessary, file a lawsuit with the people's court to protect their legitimate rights and interests. Online e-commerce platforms should also proactively take measures to stop piracy and infringement, not only taking down or removing content after receiving an infringement notice from the rights holder. For sellers engaging in piracy and infringement, platforms should impose penalties based on platform rules and agreement terms.