论同人作品的著作权法和反不正当竞争法规制——兼评《此间的少年》案

Copyright Law and Anti-unfair Competition Law Regulation of Fan Fiction——A Concurrent Review of the Case of“There They Were”

同人作品具有借用原作品角色元素进行再创作的特点,这一特点导致同人作品的侵权纠纷频发。2023年《此间的少年》案二审宣判又一次引起了人们对于此类角色元素借用的行为是否构成著作权侵权和不正当竞争的争议。根据著作权法的基本原理,角色元素不应当作为表达受到著作权法的保护,使用原作品的角色元素创作同人作品也难以构成著作权侵权。同时,用反不正当竞争法的一般条款规制同人作品,不应只考虑同人作者的主观意图,而是要进行综合利益衡量,防止原作者的权益边界被无限扩张。

Fan fiction have the characteristics of re-creation by borrowing the character elements of the original works,which leads to frequent infringement disputes.This year,the second trial verdict of the case of“There They Were”has once again sparked controversy over whether the borrowing of such character elements constitutes copyright infringement and unfair competition.According to the basic principles of copyright law,character elements should not be protected by copyright law as expressions,and using character elements of original works to create fan fiction is difficult to constitute copyright infringement.At the same time,using the general provisions of the anti-unfair competition law to regulate fan fiction,we should not only consider the subjective intention of fan fiction’s authors,but also measure the comprehensive interests to prevent the unlimited expansion of the rights and interests of the original authors.