產權話語、新聞生產與創新競爭－－評“今日頭條”事件

Fighting for “Headlines”：Property Right Discourse, News Production and Competitive Innovation

以2014年圍繞互聯網新聞聚合應用“今日頭條”引發的著作權爭議為切入點，就互聯網時代與新聞生產有關的若干著作權法律與政策問題提出評論。“今日頭條”爭議中隨處可見的強勁產權話語是著作權法制在我國迅速發展過程中取得的一項重要成果。但法制的發達不意味著政策思考面臨的事實問題已經得到解決。而產權話語的強勢則暗藏危險，它可能會讓人們忽略保護產權只是著作權制度促進社會福利的手段，並非社會追求的目的本身。通過著作權制度促進社會福利意味著人們應關注生產性創新，並警惕以產權為理由提出的分配性要求。就“今日頭條”事件涉及的新聞生產來說，傳播創新的社會效率價值尤其應得到足夠的關注。

This commentary makes several observations on issues of copyright law and policy that need be raised in a series of copyright disputes in 2014 involving the news aggregation app “Toutiao” (“headlines”). The development of copyright law in China over time has produced strong commitments among lawyers to property right protection of copyright interests, while it has also left unattended to some important empirical questions. The robust property right discourse as observed in the “Toutiao” disputes attests to the law’s increasing strength and influence, but it could also potentially lead to the common misconception of protecting property right in copyright being the end in itself rather than the means to promoting innovation and social welfare. From the policy perspective, a social welfare-oriented copyright system should afford adequate attention to productive innovations and also remain vigilant against purely distributive claims grounded in property right. With respect to the production of news, the social value of innovation in news dissemination and distribution should be properly acknowledged and appreciated.