Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court issued two more injunctions against three Bytedance apps, prohibiting them from livestreaming Tencent games โHonour of Kingsโ and โCrossFire,โ 36Kr reported.
Why it matters: Tencent has been unrelenting in stripping Bytedance of the right to use its games in content as it fends off rivals to live-streaming platforms it has invested in, such as Nasdaq-listed Douyu and NYSE-listed Huya.
- Tencent has sued Bytedance eight times since November 2018 over game copyrights.
Details: The court ordered Bytedanceโs short video app Huoshan Video to stop livestreaming โHonour of Kingsโ and demanded that Xigua Video and content aggregator Jinri Toutiao halt livestreams of first-person shooter game โCrossFire.โ
- Tencent said the user agreement for its games prohibits users from recording, livestreaming, or distributing game content without its authorization.
- Bytedance argued that users have right to stream footage of Tencentโs games being played, or at least share the right to stream Tencentโs IP. This right, according to Bytedance, gives users the right to livestream the games on Bytedance apps.
- The court ruled that Tencent has full rights to gameplay footage of โHonour of Kingsโ because users donโt add unique contributions to the footage and are only using assets created by developers.
Context: Tencent has successfully barred three Bytedance apps from livestreaming several of its most popular games, though most of the bans have been temporary injunctions, not final rulings.
- Xigua Video has been banned from livestreaming โHonour of Kings,โ โCross Fire,โ and โLeague of Legends.โ
- Huoshan Video has been prohibited from livestreaming โHonour of Kings.โ
- Jinri Toutiao is no longer allowed to livestream โCrossFireโ and โLeague of Legends,โ nor can it host short videos related to โHonour of Kings.โ
