美国版权法中的角色保护及其启示

Character Protection in the U. S. Copyright Law

随着娱乐行业的发展,"角色"之争层出不穷,角色是否可以独立于作品获得版权法的保护也成为了炙手可热的问题。因为美国的联邦版权法中没有关于角色保护的规定,所以判定角色是否受版权法保护也没有统一的标准,往往在判例中使用个案分析的方式。在美国的司法判例中逐渐形成了几种判断角色可版权性的方法,法官、律师、学者也经常对判断标准产生不同的理解,更导致了判断原则的混淆,裁判的不统一。找到最合理的判断角色是否可以单独受版权法保护的方法,最大限度地维持版权人的利益与公共利益之间的平衡是十分必要的。美国的判定原则对我国的司法实践也有可借鉴之处。

With the development of entertainment industry,increasing disputes concerning the copyright of characters occur frequently these days.Whether the character can acquire copyright protection independently is a really heated subject in the IP field.Without any regulations about character protection in the U.S.federal copyright act,verdicts of the character copyright protection is often made case by case due to lack of a common criterion.Judges,lawyers and scholars often confuse whether the character should be protected by the copyright law or not.Therefore,it is necessary and urgent to work out the most reasonable doctrine to balance the interest between the public and the copyright holder and advocate creation.The verdict doctrine may afford references for judicial practices in China.