Page 271 - A Study on the Role of UGC Platforms in Copyright Law：An Intermediary-oriented Approach

A Study on the Role of UGC Platforms in Copyright Law: Appendix 2 Interview Record (Participant A)
An Intermediary-oriented Approach

Huang: Haha, you can do research. Your life must be fueled with creativity!
Participant A: Haha, thanks for your nice advise but I’m afraid I would not take. The
Shenzhen government has enacted many favorable policies for individual entrepreneurs,
especially those who coming back after their studies in foreign universities.
Huang: But I know there are already many public accounts in this field. How can you
establish your competitive advantages?
Participant A: My initial plan is to do some legal professional training via the public
account. I can provide some recruiting information, workplace suggestions and online
courses with charge. Therefore intellectual property right is very crucial.
Huang: What a big plan!

Huang: I remembered that at the early stage, you often criticized other accounts for
republishing your articles without your permission. But I don’t see such criticism now. Is
it because nowadays most accounts will use your article only after your permission?
Participant A: Well, the true reason is that we don’t have enough time to deal with the
copyright issue. Besides, most piracy problem can be solved by a new function
called “originality announcement” released by WeChat. When others republish your
article tagged with “originality announcement” without authorization, WeChat will
automatically jump to the link of the original account with the previous layout. So most
accounts will ask for permission since they would like to use their own layout. But some
accounts are really disgusting and keep republishing my articles without my permission,
such as lvya （绿芽） and zhihe （智合）. True, they could substantially raise attention
in the short term. But I don’t think they can last long because they have no competitive
advantage. Or say, they haven’t built their barrier. Lvya, a public account which is said
to be created by some pku law students, republishes articles from various source. It has
only one category with original articles, but this category is operated by students in
Shanghai Jiaotong University.
Huang: I get it. It serves as an aggregator, like Google news and Headline Daily （今日头
条）. But the audience like such aggregators because these aggregators can reduce the
searching costs. Audience can obtain various kinds of information by simply subscribing
one account.
Participant A: That’s why I say it is unfair. Right now there are some intermediaries such
as rightknights （维权骑士） to help IP right holders to enforce their rights. When my
business is bigger, I will also resort to such intermediaries to protect my right. But now
we have no time to specially deal with piracy. We just file a complaint when me or the
volunteer find piracy accidentally. I know that some websites have kept using our articles
but as I say, I have no time to pursue my right. On the other hand, if these websites have
indicated the original source, they are doing free advertisements for us.

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