“WAP搜索”及相关服务著作权侵权问题研究

搜索引擎在向手机用户提供“WAP搜索”时,会对原网页进行格式转换,以便用户在较小的手机屏幕上浏览网页.这一过程涉及的“临时复制”不产生有独立经济价值的复制件,即使在承认“临时复制”构成复制行为的欧盟,此行为也不构成对复制权的侵权.但刻意将转换后的网页存储在服务器中,并直接向后续手机用户提供的行为,则无法根据“系统缓存避风港”或合理使用的一般规则免责,因此构成直接侵权.由于搜索引擎难以直接证明自己仅提供搜索和即时格式转换,以及没有在服务器中保留转换后的网页,所以法院应在个案中结合“WAP搜索”的技术特征,根据优势证据规则作出判断.

A Study on Copyright Infringement Issues Arising from Services Related to WAP Searching

When a search engine provides WAP searching service to users of mobile phones,the original webpages will be automatically reformatted to be adapted for viewing on the small screens of mobile phones.The temporary copies existing in this process do not have independent economic values,so the process does not involve copyright infringement even in EU countries where temporary copying is recognized as an act of reproduction.However,wilfully saving the reformatted copies of webpages on servers and making them available to the following users is a direct infringement,which could not be exempted from liability by "safe harbor for system catching" or fair use doctrine.Since it is difficult for a search engine provider to prove that it only provides search and real-time reformatting service without keeping the copy of reformatted webpage on its server,so the court should make the judgment by the standard of preponderance of the evidence and take the technical features of WAP searching into consideration.