Game plagiarism can be divided into the following situations according to the different plagiarism contents:
First, pure code plagiarism is generally more complicated, which may mainly be a specific effect in the game (such as the game engine) or pure technical plagiarism in the form of game operation. The legal aspects involved may be patent infringement, infringement of trade secrets, etc. (For example, old employees go out to start a business with the original code of the company). This kind of appraisal is complicated and must be appraised by professionals, but once it is implemented, it is basically impossible to make a comeback. After all, most companies will leave their marks in the code.
Second, game plagiarism is mostly what we ordinary players say, such as DOTA and LOL, LOL and the glory of the king, but the copyright law does not protect ideas, only protects expression, and pure gameplay is not protected (all over the world), so this so-called "plagiarism" does not constitute plagiarism at the legal level.
Third, the plagiarism of game content has a wide classification, which may constitute different infringements according to different elements. For example, the plagiarism of specific contents such as game screen, game character image, game background story, game equipment name introduction, game icon, game character animation effect, etc. This kind of case is also the most tried by domestic courts at present. In recent years, with the strengthening of intellectual property protection, the amount of compensation for plagiarism litigation of well-known games is getting higher and higher, which has repeatedly broken records (more than 5 million), but compared with the actual benefits obtained by plagiarists, it is still too small.
Most games are usually sued in the name of "copyright infringement" or "unfair competition" after being copied. Among them, "copyright infringement" can clearly define what plagiarism is.
In the determination of copyright infringement, substantial similarity+connection is the main criterion. The so-called "contact" is not difficult to understand, which refers to the possibility that previous works can be contacted. After all, games are electronic products circulating on the Internet. In most cases, it is not too difficult to prove the order of the game.
So in most cases, the core problem often boils down to two points:
1. Does the plaintiff think that the copied content belongs to the "work" protected by the copyright law?
2. Whether the works constitute "substantial similarity". The "works" in the copyright law can be subdivided into nine categories: audio-visual works, computer software, written works and artistic works. Different types of works judge "substantial similarity" in different ways.
Legal basis:
Article 9 of the Copyright Law
Copyright owners include:
(1) author;
(2) Other natural persons, legal persons or unincorporated organizations that enjoy copyright according to this Law.
Article 10 of the Copyright Law
Copyright includes the following personal rights and property rights:
(a) the right to publish, that is, the right to decide whether the work is open;
(2) the right of signature, that is, the right to indicate the identity of the author and sign his name on the work;
(3) the right to modify, that is, the right to modify or authorize others to modify a work;
(four) the right to protect the integrity of the work, that is, the right to protect the work from distortion and tampering;
(5) the right of reproduction, that is, the right to make one or more copies of a work by means of printing, photocopying, rubbing, audio recording, video recording, copying, remaking and digitization;
(6) the right of distribution, that is, the right to provide the original or duplicate of a work to the public by way of sale or gift;
(seven) the right to rent, that is, the right to temporarily license others to use the original or copy of audio-visual works and computer software, except that computer software is not the main object of rent.