Fine issued for unauthorized font used in film

A legal case concerning award-winning film Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe grabbed the headlines recently in the Chinese media, thrusting the copyright of fonts into the limelight.

Chaoyang District People's Court recently ruled in favor of plaintiff Xiang Jiahong, a calligrapher who created a new font named after himself, which is available in most computer font libraries.

The court ordered the defendants - Dream Author Pictures (Beijing), Beijing Global Yoodoo Films, Le Vision Pictures (Beijing) and China Film - which participated in the film's production and presentation, to make a public apology and together pay 140,000 yuan ($21,880) in damages for unauthorized use of the font.

The defendants said they would lodge an appeal against the verdict.

Xiang initiated the legal procedures in 2015, the same year Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe was released, after he discovered that seven Chinese characters used in the movie props as names of an old book and newspaper employed the font he created.

Evidence presented at court showed that Xiang registered the font of semi-cursive script, a variant of traditional Chinese calligraphy, with the Guangdong Copyright Administration in December 2013 and was granted a registration certificate in March 2014.

The defendants claimed that it was a "fair use" in the movie, as the characters in question were used as the names of props, rather than showing their artistic value, and the use didn't exert substantial influence over Xiang.

In addition, they noted the easy access to the font and related libraries installed on a computer and asserted that users couldn't be expected to take unreasonable care.

Le Vision Pictures said it didn't participate in the movie's shooting and production and was just involved in investment, promotion and distribution. As a result, it knew little of the movie props and was not liable.

The court rejected the fair use claim.

The judges said the choice itself of the font, rather than others, showed the characters were not only used to help the audience to understand the plot in context, but also showed the producers' aesthetic judgment.

The font reflects its creator's unique artistic taste and personal preferences, and thus can be protected by copyright, according to the court.

The judges found that Xiang had profited from licensing the copyright of his works and that the defendants' unauthorized use affected his economic interests.

Font-related infringements in the film industry could be targeted at a font library or focus on an individual font. The former is linked to computer product copyright, while the latter is related to that of an artwork, Xu Yaoming, deputy general manager of the legal service center at a Chinese online anti-piracy alliance, which is headquartered in Beijing, told China Intellectual Property News.

"The transformative use of a font in a movie can constitute fair use," he noted. That means the movie has changed the characters' artistic value by adding new ideas or enabling them to have new functions, the Beijing-based newspaper quoted Xu as saying.

He cited a documentary on Chinese calligraphy as an example to illustrate fair use, where calligraphy works were no longer a simple presentation of their aesthetic perception.

Movie producers need to improve their copyright awareness and check the legal rights status of the font used in advance, Xu said. "Never expect an escape (from penalties) by good fortune."

(China Daily 06/07/2018 page17)