虚拟数字人版权保护法律问题研究——以首例涉虚拟数字人侵权案为例
Research on Copyright Protection Legal Issues for Virtual Humans —Taking the First Case of Virtual Human Copyright Infringement as an Example

随着人工智能技术的迅速发展，虚拟数字人作为一种新的科技产物逐渐在商业和娱乐领域中得到广泛应用。然而，这种技术的迅猛进展也带来了对现行知识产权保护体系的挑战。本文以首例涉及虚拟数字人的侵权案件为研究对象，深入探讨了虚拟数字人版权保护的法律问题。该案件由某(上海)科技公司诉杭州某网络公司著作权侵权及不正当竞争纠纷引发，主要探讨了虚拟数字人作为权利主体的法律地位、虚拟数字人版权的归属与合理使用，以及虚拟数字人侵权责任的法律认定等多个法律层面的问题。虚拟数字人并非自然人，不具备作者身份，其所生成的内容尽管具备独创性，但不直接归属于虚拟数字人本身。探讨了虚拟数字人版权保护的法律界限，审视了虚拟数字人侵权责任的承担及相关的法律救济措施，以期在未来的法律框架下更好地保护虚拟数字人的合法权益。
With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, virtual digital human, as a new scientific and technological product, has been widely used in business and entertainment fields. However, the rapid development of this technology has also brought challenges to the current intellectual property protection system. This paper takes the first infringement case involving virtual digital people as the research object, and deeply discusses the legal issues of copyright protection of virtual digital people. The case was triggered by a Shanghai technology company v. a network company in Hangzhou for copyright infringement and unfair competition disputes. It mainly discussed the legal status of the virtual digital person as the subject of rights, the ownership and rational use of the copyright of the virtual digital person, and the legal determination of the infringement liability of the virtual digital person. Virtual digital man is not a natural person and does not have the identity of author. Although the content generated by him is original, it does not directly belong to the virtual digital man himself. This paper probes into the legal boundaries of copyright protection of virtual digital people, and examines the tort liability of virtual digital people and relevant legal relief measures, with a view to better protecting the legitimate rights and interests of virtual digital people under the future legal framework.