The Journey Ahead (copyright law/public domain/ancient poems/AI)
The Journey Ahead (copyright law/public domain/ancient poems/AI)
Li Dongtao
Description: Ancient Poems are in the public domain now.
A． The case
The journey ahead is long and arduous,
I’ll do my best to carry on.
This is a sentence of the poem The Lament (Li Sao) created by Qu Yuan (about 340BC – 278BC).
We Chinese are proud today because our ancestors created poems more than 2,000 years ago.
This is a case about “Ancient poems”.
The plaintiff is an excellent middle school teacher.
The defendant is a .com company operating a commercial education website.
In October 2011, the plaintiff wrote a textbook Translating Ancient Poems, explained the ancient poems in a special way for the purpose of teaching pupils. Qu Yuan’s The Lament was included.
In March 2012, the book was published in mainland China and became popular quickly. Ldt
A month later, the plaintiff found his book was uploaded onto the defendant’s website for an online class program.
The plaintiff sued the defendant for copyright infringement.
The defendant argued that the copyright infringement was not established because the ancient poems were in the public domain.
The court ruled that the copyright infringement was established because the explanation of ancient poems in a special way was not in the public domain.
A. Public Domain
Public domain is a term in copyright law, it is commonly used to refer to content that isn’t protected by copyright law.
Content here includes two parts:
a. From the very beginning.
Some expressions, such as Ideas, facts, and concepts which are excluded from copyright protections. These are born directly into the public domain;
b. Expired.
The duration of copyright in the work has expired — In China, for example, the copyright in a book expires 50 years after the death of its author, anyone can use it without obtaining permission, but no one can ever own it.
In this case, there is no doubt Qu Yuan’s The Lament is in the public domain, but the plaintiff’s explanation isn’t.
B. AI: a good choice
It’s true there are lots of copyright risks for developers of AI systems, it’s also true there some breathing space for them.
Public domain is a good choice.
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