Page 299 - A Study on the Role of UGC Platforms in Copyright Law：An Intermediary-oriented Approach

Appendix 7 Interview Record (Participant F)

Appendix 7 Interview Record

(Participant F)

Time: 13:00-13:25, 1 April 2017
Venue: Kungfu Restaurant, 2 Floor, No. 1 Dongpu Road, Guangzhou
Interviewee: Participant F, a staff member in a government-affiliated institution
Interviewer: Huang Weijie

Huang: Hi! So sorry to take your time for lunch break. This interview is mainly for my
Ph.D. thesis. My topic is user-generated content (UGC) and copyright reform. UGC
refers to the content that is created by amateurs rather than professionals. Examples
of UGC include fanfictions, parodies, remixes, samplings, etc. UGC is fundamentally
different from traditional copyrighted works in many aspects, such as the non-economic
incentives and collaborative authorship. This brings significant challenges to copyright
law. I have watched the micro film you and your colleagues made for your unit. It is very
interesting and related to my topic. Can you tell me more about this?
Participant F: Haha, no problem.
Huang: Where did the music in your micro film come from? You created it? Or you just used
pre-existing music?
Participant F: They are all pre-existing pieces of music
Huang: Have you asked for permission to use? Besides, it seemed that your film did not
credit the composers.
Participant F: We haven’t because we used the songs for non-commercial purpose.
Huang: Well, first, the threshold of fair use decision is high and commerciality is only
one consideration. Even if your use constitute fair use, you should indicate its source,
including the names of the original copyright owners. I wonder whether the form of film
made it difficult to attribute the composers of these pieces of music.
Participant F: Oh, but I did not know where my colleagues found the music. Most of them
were fragments without identifiable beginning or the end. Do we still need to pay the
composers?
Huang: The fair use doctrine in our copyright law confined fair use into a close list of
circumstances. Your micro film may not belong to any category in the list. If your use
could not be regarded fair use, unauthorized use may be infringing even if you just use
some fragments. The criteria for musical work infringement suits are quite strict because
the original work itself is not long. It is easy to be determined as infringing.

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