Author of this article: Lawyer Liu Honglin (Founder and Director of Shanghai Mankiw Law Firm)
The digital collection industry has been experiencing ups and downs for more than a year, and all major platforms are exploring their own platform positioning and main gameplay. However, no matter what the industry development trend is, the relationship between the digital collection industry platform and users seems to have always stayed in the cold winter period of the industry last year, and the trust foundation between the two parties is extremely weak. After a disagreement, we started to defend our rights.
The regulatory red lines for many games and activities in the digital collection industry are still unclear, and the positive development of the industry cannot be separated from the efforts of everyone. For data storage platforms that do engage in illegal activities and damage the industry ecology, the process of user rights protection is precisely the process of regulating the development of the industry. However, in the process of safeguarding rights, one still needs to safeguard rights rationally and grasp the direction and sense of proportion, so as to effectively safeguard ones legitimate rights and interests and avoid causing unnecessary trouble to oneself.
Therefore, this article will talk about the pitfalls that platform users should avoid when legitimately safeguarding their rights, and how platform bosses should deal with irrational rights protection.
01 The difference between legitimate rights protection and irrational rights protection
To determine whether it is legitimate rights protection, you can consider the following three main aspects:
Is the motive for safeguarding rights legitimate?
The motive of rights protection, that is, whether the purpose of rights protection deviates from the real dispute between the two parties, whether it is to protect ones own rights and interests, or whether it is purely for the purpose of claiming compensation, such as a professional anti-counterfeiter in the food industry.
Are the means of safeguarding rights legal?
Rights protection methods should be carried out without affecting the legitimate rights and interests of the other party or third party, and without violating laws and regulations. Illegal rights protection must not be carried out in the form of fabricating reasons, forging evidence, providing false information, etc.
Is the basis for rights protection sufficient?
The basis for rights protection refers to whether there is evidence for the creation of rights and whether the scope of rights is necessary and equivalent. Whether the claims made have a certain factual basis or legal basis, or are they delusional or fabricated claims, such as hush money, etc.
02 Key points for legitimate rights protection and avoiding pitfalls
It can be done unless prohibited by law. As long as the users rights protection methods do not infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of others or violate laws and regulations, it is an effective way to safeguard rights and interests. To put it simply, the current rights protection methods in the digital collection industry mainly include the following: complaints and reports, private negotiation and communication, civil prosecution, criminal prosecution, etc.
There are various means and approaches. Which method to choose can better achieve the expected results and effectively compensate for personal losses, which requires comprehensive consideration based on the details of the platforms operation. However, you should avoid stepping on the following pitfalls during the rights protection process.
Follow blindly
In the data storage industry, it is not uncommon for a user to play on several platforms at the same time, and users are also well aware of the intricacies of each platform. The gameplay and routines of these platforms are very similar if you look closely, and they are nothing more than replacement, synthesis, lottery, new recruits, etc. Moreover, some digital collection platforms have been criminally filed, providing a boost to users’ rights protection efforts.
The demand from the industry has also prompted the recruitment of rights protection professionals. The professionals hold three familiar tricks: once they lose money, it will be false propaganda on the platform, fund-raising fraud, and rat warehouses. However, each platform’s establishment background, business details, IP publicity, etc. are different.
The success stories of platforms being registered do not mean that these materials can be completely copied and applied. Sometimes, the materials provided by users do not conform to the actual situation of the platform, and they blindly emphasize fraud, rat warehouse, pyramid scheme (commonly used CX in the industry). Each one looks very powerful and fatal, but each one fails to hit the point and is blurred. It has reduced the focus of investigation by relevant departments and also hindered the progress of investigation.
lack of legal awareness
Legality is the cornerstone of rights protection. The first step in safeguarding rights is to first clarify the basic facts that the rights and interests have been infringed. After making a basic judgment that there is an infringement, determine the appropriate relief method based on the purpose of safeguarding rights that you want to achieve. For example, providing the tax bureau with clues about fraud and CX is obviously not feasible.
Secondly, relevant evidence must be collected and retained based on the relevant circumstances of the dispute between the two parties. No matter what method of rights protection is adopted, you need to have materials to support your claims. Rights defense activities without evidence are often unconvincing and may even lead to damage to an individuals own rights and interests.
too radical
Some Shuzang users, in order to attract the attention of the platform, adopt some extreme and radical methods in the process of safeguarding their rights. This approach often leads to the escalation of the situation and completely breaks the basis for negotiation and reconciliation that may have existed between the two parties.
In addition, some users threaten the platform by taking the lead in safeguarding their rights and claim compensation amounts that far exceed the actual situation. For the purpose of illegal possession, users create psychological coercion on the platform by publishing relevant content, taking the lead in rights protection, etc., thereby obtaining property that they should not obtain. In this case, they may be suspected of extortion.
03 Legal risks of irrational rights protection
Rights protection for digital collections is often a group event. After a rights defender appears, a rights protection group is usually quickly formed in a short period of time, and it is not difficult to gather hundreds of rights protection users. The composition of these dozens or hundreds of rights protection users is also quite complex. Some take the lead in attacking, some assist, and most of them take a wait-and-see attitude and wait for the active group to make substantial progress before joining.
The road to rights protection is long. In order to mobilize the enthusiasm of other users, some people may adopt irrational methods such as human flesh exposure, personal attacks, insults and abuses, fabrication of platform-related facts, and gatherings to cause trouble. This not only affects the normal operation of the digital collection platform, but also affects the normal operation of the digital collection platform. It may also cause serious trouble to the physical, mental and life of the platforms main operators. The following is a brief analysis of several common radical behaviors and countermeasures:
Legal risks of insulting and verbal abuse
The company and its main operating personnel all enjoy the right of reputation in accordance with the law and shall not be infringed upon by anyone. No organization or individual may infringe on the reputation rights of others by insulting, slandering, etc. If a user insults company personnel or engages in commercial defamation, the platform may, in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Code of the Peoples Republic of China, require the infringer to bear responsibilities such as stopping the infringement, eliminating the impact, restoring reputation, making an apology, and compensating for losses. In addition, those who insult or slander company personnel may also be suspected of violating Article 42 of the Public Security Administration Punishment Law of the Peoples Republic of China and face penalties such as detention and fines.
Legal risks of fabricating facts
In the industry, there are still situations where some users no longer consider making up for their losses, and all kinds of actions are just to send the platform boss to eat national food and wear a silver bracelet. They often have long-standing grievances and deep conflicts with the platform, but cannot stand alone, so they deliberately fabricate and fabricate some fictitious platform situations to gather rights-defending users, and use these unverified and unfounded materials as the basis to appeal to users who do not know what they are doing. Joint report.
This kind of behavior violates Article 42, Item 3 of the Public Security Administration Punishment Law of the Peoples Republic of China, which stipulates fabricating facts and false accusations to frame others in an attempt to subject others to criminal liability or public security administration penalties, and will face punishment of detention or fines ; More seriously, it may be suspected of the crime of false accusation and frame-up stipulated in Article 243 of the Criminal Law of the Peoples Republic of China, which not only infringes upon the legitimate rights of citizens, but also seriously affects the normal activities of the judicial organs.
Legal risks of gathering to cause trouble
In addition, due to policy considerations, industry inertia and other reasons, most digital collection platforms have chosen Hainan as their registered office address.
Relying on the openness and transparency of the companys basic industrial and commercial information, many Shuzang users organizedly gathered in the platforms offices to cause trouble, causing serious disorder in public places; or they destroyed property due to excessive emotions, and physical conflicts broke out. This kind of behavior may constitute picking quarrels and provoking troubles, which will be punished by public security management; if the behavior is egregious, serious, or causes serious chaos to public order, it may also be suspected of the crime of picking quarrels and provoking troubles stipulated in Article 293 of the Criminal Law of the Peoples Republic of China.
How should the Shuzang platform respond?
When dealing with rights protection matters, digital collection platforms should maintain a correct attitude, face it proactively, and use multiple means to resolve the crisis.
First of all, the platform needs to have a comprehensive understanding of the triggers of the outbreak of rights protection, the scale of rights protection users, the demands and reasons of rights protection users, and the measures that rights protection users have taken.
Secondly, on the basis of comprehensive understanding of the situation and obtaining information from multiple channels, we conduct internal self-examination and self-correction for rights protection incidents, and conduct overall research and judgment to determine whether there are potential risk points and the size of the risk on the platform, and then analyze the existing risks. Adjustments, solutions. For platforms that have been investigated by relevant departments, we must not ignore them with an ostrich mentality, or make hasty efforts to muddle through, let alone fabricate platform situations in order to cope with the investigation.
In addition, platforms based in the digital collection industry should also pay attention to industry trends at all times, be cautious in conducting business behaviors that are likely to arouse user emotions, and pay attention to other platforms that have clearly identified extremely high-risk business behaviors. The platform should also establish its own emergency response plan and work mechanism, and formulate abnormal handling procedures and docking personnel in advance to avoid failure and intensification of conflicts.
Finally, for irrational rights protection behaviors, platforms can consider a combination of firmness and softness to inform irrational rights protection users of legitimate rights protection channels and the legal consequences of current actions, including civil, administrative and criminal legal risks. If necessary, a lawyers letter or an infringement notification letter can be sent to them; at the same time, it is recommended that the platform has a dedicated person responsible for collecting and fixing relevant infringement evidence materials so that when the situation worsens, they can rely on this evidence to take civil litigation, administrative complaints, criminal charges, etc. Ways to safeguard the rights and interests of the platform and stabilize public order.
04 Mankiw lawyer’s advice
All in all, the best way to protect the rights and interests of both the platform and the users is to act within the legal framework.
This article hopes to remind all users of digital collections that if your rights and interests are infringed, please defend your rights rationally, call the police or sue. If you are unclear, you can check the laws and regulations and ask a lawyer. Don’t lose the big for the small.
At the same time, I would also like to remind friends of various digital collection platforms: If users engage in suspected illegal playing with fire behavior and have poor communication during the rights protection process, they can also call the police directly.
Special statement:
This article is an original article by Shanghai Mankiw Law Firm. It only represents the personal views of the author of this article and does not constitute legal consultation or legal opinions on specific matters. If you need to reprint the article, please contact Mankun Law Firm staff: MankunLawFirm