电子游戏画面可版权性问题研究——从“梦幻西游2案”与“炉石传说案”说起

Study on the Copyright of Video Game Images:A Case Study of “Fantasy Westward Journey 2” and “Hearthstone”

伴随着网络直播行业的兴起,电子游戏画面的可版权性问题逐渐引发热议。“梦幻西游2案”与“炉石传说案”作为其中两个重要案例,对于游戏画面的可版权性问题似乎作出了相反的认定。这样一种冲突背后折射出司法实践在游戏画面可版权性问题上存在概念使用和逻辑说理上的混乱。文章认为在双维视角下,游戏画面可以区分为游戏整体画面以及玩家生成画面。一方面,游戏整体画面在满足独创性要求的基础上通常属于作品,且基于“连续动态图像”的本质特征可以被认定为类电作品。另一方面,在一般情况下玩家生成画面并没有因为玩家的贡献而产生独立于游戏整体画面的新作品,因此并不属于演绎作品。

With the boom of the video game live streaming industry,the copyright of video game images has aroused heated discussion.“Fantasy Westward Journey 2”and“Hearthstone”are two of those important cases related to this issue.Two courts had divergent views on the copyright of video game images.This divergence reflects the confusion of conceptual use and logical reasoning about the copyright of video game images in judicial practice.This article held that from the two-dimensional perspective,the video game images could be divided into the whole game image and the player-forming image.On the one hand,the whole game images could usually be considered as the work when satisfying the originality requirements,and also the audiovisual work based on the essential feature of“continuous dynamic image”.On the other hand,in general,the game player's operation did not produce a new work that was independent of the whole game images,so player-forming images could not be considered as derivative work.