封面新聞記者馬曉玉 譚羽清

Recently, Zhang Jianfeng, the legal representative of Beijing Century Higher Education Book Co., Ltd., posted through his social platform account "Teacher Zhang, the English publisher of the Yellow Book", that the Yellow Book of Postgraduate Entrance Examination English is about to be suspended, which has caused heated discussions on the Internet.

Zhang Jianfeng said, "In the future, the analysis of English past papers of any year will not be published, and the existing yellow book questions will be out of print." Its staff explained in a previous interview, "piracy is mainly spread through network disks, and due to the non-real-name system, the source cannot be found, and it is difficult to protect rights." ”

Zhang Jianfeng, the legal representative of Beijing Century Higher Education Book Co., Ltd., made a relevant speech

4月13日，泰和泰律師事務所數字經濟法律專家陳福中接受封面新聞記者採訪時指出，若作品知名度較高，可以引用“紅旗原則”起訴網盤平台維權。他強調：“根據法律規定，所有網路帳號均需實名認證，通過公安、行政或司法機關完全可以調取用戶資訊，所謂‘找不到源頭’的情況一般不存在。”

盜版亂象叢生

The low-cost electronic version hits the genuine market

Zhang Jianfeng revealed in the post that due to rampant piracy, sales have plummeted, the editorial team has not paid salaries for half a year, and its personal debt is as high as more than 45 yuan, "The sales in the same period this year fell by 0% again compared with last year. ”

The reporter's investigation found that the "Yellow Book will be suspended" incident is only the tip of the iceberg of piracy in the teaching and auxiliary industry. Searching for "Yellow Book Electronic Edition" on the shopping platform, a large number of free or low-cost (as low as 8.0 yuan) pirated resources flood the Internet, and the information provided by it includes six categories of content, such as real questions, analysis of past questions, word-by-word elaboration, and discourse study, which are almost the same as genuine content. In stark contrast, the price of a shopping platform's genuine "0 English 1 over 6 Innocence Questions and Analysis" three book sets is as high as 0.0 yuan.

The incident caused polarization of public opinion: some students lamented that "the editor's hard work was destroyed by piracy", and some students did not buy it, bluntly saying that "the price of genuine copies is inflated, and the bundled sales look ugly", "There are also many pirated copies of Xiao Si Xiao Ba, and graduate students still choose genuine copies." In this regard, Zhang Jianfeng responded that the price adjustment plan has been launched, the price of the set has been reduced from 6.0 yuan to 0.0 yuan, and the product structure has been optimized, and the book category has been adjusted according to the level of students, and the new version is expected to be launched at the end of 0.

Stubborn diseases plague the whole industry

The teaching and auxiliary market is trapped in a vicious circle

Students' choice of piracy is the result of the combined effect of economic rationality and market environment, but the phenomenon of "the yellow book will be discontinued" reflects the common dilemma of traditional educational publishing in the digital age.

The reporter noticed that in addition to the yellow book, electronic resources such as the Red Book, the Truth of the Postgraduate Entrance Examination, and the Sentence Truth are also circulating on social media. On 9/0, "Postgraduate Entrance Examination Truth" also posted on its WeChat public account that piracy and abuse of electronic resources are stubborn diseases that have plagued the development of the industry for a long time, and they are also facing the same problem, and said that "illegal materials may not only have the risk of knowledge errors and omissions, but also cause damage to the accuracy of educational content and the continuity of services, and will fundamentally destroy the source of educational content innovation." ”

"The Truth of Postgraduate Entrance Examination" related platforms release instructions

According to the analysis of industry insiders, the current teaching and auxiliary market has fallen into a vicious circle of "high price, piracy, declining sales, and price increase". According to the data, the scale of China's book retail market reached 05 billion yuan in 0 years, of which teaching aids accounted for 0.0%, which is an indispensable part of the book market. However, in view of the highly concealed nature of the piracy industry chain, it is difficult to govern. Some institutions chose to give up due to the high cost of rights protection, which further exacerbated the phenomenon of bad money driving out good money.

The path of legal rights protection

You can sue the network disk platform

In view of rampant piracy, how should the teaching and auxiliary publishing industry protect its rights? What are the difficulties in combating piracy? In Chen Fuzhong's view, there are three main points.

As far as civil channels are concerned, network disk suppliers have copyright complaint channels, and rights holders can submit materials to request the removal of infringing content. However, this practice often requires relying on third-party companies to provide network-wide infringement monitoring and bulk complaint services, and the cost may not be proportional to the cost and benefit depending on the market value of the work and the negotiation with the rights protection agency. Rights protection agencies can adopt an "all-risk model", that is, they will collect fees after the rights are successfully defended. On the other hand, if the platform refuses to provide the identity information of the infringer on the grounds of privacy protection, the difficulty of civil litigation will be further increased.

As far as the administrative approach is concerned, the Market Supervision Bureau can be found to investigate and deal with it, complain about large-scale piracy (such as the operation of registered companies), and request investigation and administrative punishment. This item requires clues of infringement, and local law enforcement efforts vary greatly.

就刑事途徑來說，只要通過信息網路向公眾傳播他人作品，非法經營數額在五萬元以上或傳播他人作品的數量合計在五百件（部）以上，涉嫌構成“侵犯著作權罪”。目前已有通過網盤傳播被判刑的案例，刑事打擊震懾力強。其難點就在於立案門檻較高，需權利人自行舉證，立案難度較大。

So, is there a situation where the staff mentioned that "it's not a real-name system, and the source can't be found"? Chen Fuzhong said that according to the law, all online accounts require real-name authentication, and the public security, administrative or judicial organs can completely obtain user information, and there is generally no situation where no one can be found, but the existence of fake accounts is not ruled out.

Despite the complexity of rights protection, Chen Fuzhong suggested that instead of passively giving up, it is better to take the initiative to solve the problem through various methods such as law + media + industry. At the same time, we can also learn from the experience of the transformation of the music industry to accelerate the upgrading of digital services. If the work is well-known, the "Red Flag Principle" can also be cited to sue the platform for liability.

The red flag principle in the law refers to the "red flag principle", which means that when the fact of infringement is obvious and "fluttering like a red flag", the network service provider cannot pretend not to see it, or shirk responsibility on the grounds that it does not know about the infringement. Previously, a film and television drama sued Baidu Netdisk to win the lawsuit, and the court found that the platform should be held liable for failing to delete the infringing link in a timely manner.

The industry turmoil caused by the "yellow book discontinuation" is not only about the survival of individual enterprises, but also reflects the systemic challenges faced by traditional education publishing in the digital era. How to balance intellectual property protection and knowledge inclusion will become a proposition that must be solved for the sustainable and healthy development of the industry.