TYGlobe

On June 26, 2025, the "2025 Short Drama Overseas Expansion Brand Conference" was grandly convened at Shanghai Oriental Smart Media City. With the theme of "Openness · Connectivity · Empowerment", this conference gathered leaders from the National Radio and Television Administration of China, relevant departments of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, industry association representatives, leading domestic and overseas platforms, production institutions, technical experts and legal professionals, to jointly explore market opportunities, technological innovation and industrial ecosystem construction for the overseas development of short dramas. Zhou Tao, Director and Managing Partner of TYGlobe Law Firm, Tong Ling, Senior Partner of the Firm, and other team members were invited to attend the conference.

At the roundtable forum on "Copyright Protection for Short Plays" under the "Short Play Capital Theory" special session on investment and financing, Lawyer Zhou Tao, together with Chinese and American legal experts including Professor Eric Goldman, Associate Dean of the School of Law of Santa Clara University, the United States, and Xie Bing, Founder of Shanghai Zhongyin Law Firm, carried out in-depth discussions under the moderation of Teng Manli, Business Environment Ambassador of Huangpu District, Shanghai. Lawyer Zhou Tao pointed out that AI technology is generating new challenges in the creation, production and overseas distribution of short plays: First, the basic legal characterization of core issues such as "creation subject" and "ownership of rights" concerning AI-generated content is generally ambiguous and varies significantly across the world, which directly makes it difficult to assess the copyright stability of the underlying assets of short plays relying on AIGC, with potential value risks involved. Second, copyright determination rules vary widely among countries, and AI as an emerging field has exerted impacts on legal systems. Short plays containing AI elements may face completely different legal determinations in their place of origin and target markets, and may even be ruled as copyright invalid. When such problem of "cross-border copyright invalidation" breaks out in the links of financing, transaction or rights protection, it will seriously threaten investment security, just like "the Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of investors". He particularly emphasized that the industry shall implement upfront management of this core legal and investment risk.

Lawyer Zhou Tao's remarks pointedly identify the underlying legal predicaments confronting the online short drama industry amid its expansion empowered by AI technologies. He reminds producers, platforms and investors that while embracing the efficiency brought by AI, they shall identify in advance the risks arising from disputes over legal characterization and discrepancies in international rules, and seek professional legal support in the processes of project framework design, contract terms formulation and target market selection.

As a professional law firm that has long been deeply engaged in the fields of intellectual property and entertainment technology, TYGlobe has extensive experience in handling complex copyright issues arising from cutting-edge technologies such as AI. The recent sharing delivered by Lawyer Zhou Tao has once again demonstrated the firm's professional competence and sense of responsibility in resolving emerging legal difficulties for cultural and technology enterprises and safeguarding their overseas business operations.