Towards A More Balanced Approach to Addressing Game Adaptation Infringement in China

While game adaptations have enriched people’s cultural lives, they also give rise to many legal disputes. The current copyright regime in China fails to acknowledge the core role of the right of adaptation in copyright theory and provides scant protection for video games. This allows game developers to clone or re-skin games at the expense of bona fide creators, thereby discouraging innovation and stifling creativity. This paper suggests that the normative target of the right of adaptation differs from that of the right of reproduction, despite their considerable overlap. This notion is strengthened by the exploration from the perspective of game design. Drawing on US judicial practice, this paper proposes a new three-step test to address game adaptation infringement in China. If strictly implemented, this test would avoid unduly restraining competition and follow-on innovation and interfering with the reasonable interests of the original creators