The Scope of Protection for the Collection and Dissemination Rights of Audiovisual Information of Live Sports Events——Based on the Realization of the Purpose of Adequate Private Rights Protection for the Sports Event Industry

The Law of the People's Republic of China on Sports(2022 Revision) adds the collection and dissemination rights of audiovisual information of live sports events. It is necessary to clarify its protection scope through normative analysis. The research suggests that the purpose of the establishment of this right is to provide adequate private rights protection for the sports event industry, and the realization of this purpose requires the control of the utilization of the live sports event activities. The parties of these rights include sports event organizers as the primary rights holders and the successor rights holders(assignee or licensee); the object of these rights primarily pertains to identifiable images or audiovisual recordings captured in the live sports events; the collection or dissemination aspect of the content of the right encompasses both initial and subsequent activities involved in the collection or dissemination of such content. In cases where there is no subsequent dissemination, transactions involving the rights object should be determined as for-profit only in entry-controlled sports events where the rights holders incur losses related to ticket sales; in cases involving subsequent dissemination, the for-profit should be determined in all situations. Whether media or we-media dissemination, both user-paid and third-party-funded activities should be determined as for-profit. We-media dissemination without any income should be determined as for-profit only in entry-controlled sports events where the rights holders incur losses related to ticket sales. On the other hand, collection and dissemination activities pertaining to current news reporting should be directly determined as not-for-profit.