The first paragraph of Article 10 of the Copyright Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) gives the copyright owner seventeen rights, the third of which is the right to modify and the fourth is the right to protect the integrity of the work. For book publishers to modify their works, the first paragraph of Article 33 of the Law stipulates: "Book publishers may modify or abridge their works with the permission of the author." That is to say, according to the rigid provisions of the law, book publishers and authors are not on the same platform, and book publishers have no right to modify or abridge their works without the permission of the authors.
However, book publishers sometimes modify or abridge works without authorization, which even constitutes an infringement on the copyright owner's right to protect the integrity of works. For example, a Beijing * * * Enjoy Culture Development Co., Ltd. and a Tianjin Publishing House, when publishing the Hermeneutics Series by Chen Mou Qing, a researcher of a domestic research institute, deleted all the prefaces, prefaces and epilogues without Qing's permission, and Qing sued the court for infringement of the integrity right of the works. Beijing Intellectual Property Court (20 15) decided that the deletion of the preface and postscript constituted an infringement of the integrity right of the works involved.
After trial, Beijing Intellectual Property Court held that when publishing a work, the whole picture of the work must be respected in principle. If the work is revised at this time, the author's freedom of expression will be damaged, because the author has the right to express his thoughts in his own way. Protecting the integrity right of a work is to protect the content, viewpoint and form of the work from distortion and tampering, and its basis is respect for the author's personality and the work itself. The court pointed out that the preface and postscript of the three books are the refinement and sublimation of the academic theory of the works involved, which embodies the systematic views that the author wants to highlight in the works involved and is an organic part of the works involved. To sum up, the court held that Jiajing * * * Enjoy Culture Development Co., Ltd. and Jiajin Publishing House used the general preface of the books involved and the prefaces and postscripts of the three books without the permission of Appellant Qing, which made Appellant Qing's academic thoughts not completely, accurately and systematically presented to the public, which constituted a substantial revision of the works involved and changed the contents, viewpoints and forms of the works involved.
The author believes that the judgment of Beijing Intellectual Property Court not only conforms to the spirit of China's copyright law, but also conforms to the objective facts. The preface and postscript of any work, whether literary, academic or other, are written for this work, are related to this work, and are an organic part of this work. Even translated works are no exception. The translation is born out of the original text, but it is independent of the original text, which reflects the translator's understanding of the original text and is the reproduction of the original function in another language. The translation belongs to the translator and the original belongs to the author, which are two different things. Translators and authors are the copyright owners of their respective works. The preface and postscript of the translator often talk about the characteristics, ideas, literary value and social influence of the translated works, and some authors introduce the translator's translation concept and translation process. Deleting the preface and postscript of the translated work, like deleting the preface and postscript of the original work, infringes on the copyright owner's right to protect the integrity of the work. The author has also read the preface of Summer Homework for Primary Schools. If published, according to the relevant provisions of the copyright law, deleting its preface is also suspected of infringing on the right to protect the integrity of the work.
Book publishers' job is to edit, publish and distribute, and they can independently modify typos and ill sentences and delete contents that violate laws, regulations, public order and good customs. This modification and deletion is not against the law, but also reasonable. In addition, if the book publisher thinks that there is something that needs to be revised or deleted, he can make suggestions to the author and consult with him. But the final revision and deletion must be approved by the author. After all, the work belongs to the copyright owner, which embodies the idea of the copyright owner, and the rigid provisions of the copyright law must be observed. If consultation fails and the book publisher insists on his own opinion, he may refuse to publish the works of the copyright owner. If the contract has been signed, this rejection will constitute a breach of contract, but it does not infringe the copyright owner's right to protect the integrity of the work.
Of course, although the book publisher has no right to modify or delete the work without authorization, the author's suggestion of modifying the work should be welcomed and seriously considered whether to adopt it. It should be noted that even the cleverest people have long-term considerations. Under the legal framework, mutual respect can lead to happy cooperation and ensure the publishing quality of works.