With the emergence of short video platforms such as TikTok and Douyin and their increasing integration into people's lives, short videos have increasingly become the first choice for more and more netizens to obtain information. In recent years, infringement disputes related to short video platforms have continued to emerge. According to various judicial cases in recent years, some short video platforms are often slack in undertaking their obligations, resulting in damage to the interests of rights holders. Under this circumstance, it is imperative to standardize the standard for determining the liability for indirect infringement of short videos. For the determination of indirect infringement of short video platforms, the latter insurance must grasp the three principles of technology neutrality, predictability, and equivalence of rights and obligations. In the current legal practice of the Division, the difficulty in judging whether a short video platform constitutes an indirect infringement lies in how to determine whether the short video platform "knows" or "should know" in the subjective aspect. Due to the unreasonable distribution of the burden of proof, the concealment of platform infringement, and the imperfection of the "notice-deletion" rule, rights holders have difficulty in safeguarding their rights. In this regard, in order to better safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of creators, encourage short video creators to innovate continuously, and promote the healthy development of the short video industry, when determining that a short video platform sees indirect infringement, the short video platform should appropriately aggravate the responsibility for the infringing video. The duty of care to further promote the reasonable application of the safe harbor rule.

Yuzhu Liu. Research on Indirect Infringement Identification of Short Video Platforms. International Journal of Frontiers in Sociology (2025), Vol. 7, Issue 6: 27-33. https://doi.org/10.25236/IJFS.2025.070605.

[1] Wu Handong. On the Copyright Infringement Liability of Internet Service Providers [J]. China Legal Science, 2011 (2).

[2] Wang Qian, Wang Linghong. Study on Indirect Intellectual Property Infringement [M]. China Renmin University Press, 2008: 8.

[3] Liu Wenjie. Determination of Acts of Network Dissemination of Information [J]. Studies in Law, 2016 (3): 122-139.

[4] Zhang Yumin. Intellectual Property Law [M]. Law Press, 2005.

[5] Li Mingde, Xu Chao. Copyright Law [M]. Law Press, 2009.

[6] Zheng Chengsi. On Intellectual Property [M]. Law Press, 1998: 297.

[7] Wang Qian. Study on Copyright Protection in the Network Environment [M]. Law Press, 2011: 290.

[8] Hao Mingying. Determination of Copyright Infringement Liability of Internet Short-Video Platforms [J]. Journal of Shandong University of Science and Technology (Social Sciences Edition), 2019 (4): 51-57.

[9] Lei Yizhou. The "Unsafe" Safe Harbor: Rethinking the Copyright Infringement Liability of Chinese Online Video Platforms [J]. Electronics Intellectual Property, 2020 (3): 23-39.

[10] Zhu Dong. Transplantation and Variation of Indirect Infringement Liability of Internet Service Providers [J]. Peking University Law Journal, 2019 (5): 1340-1356.

[11] Shen Shijuan, Ji Panpan. Study on the Determination of Indirect Infringement Liability of Short-Video APP Platforms [J]. Journal of Nanjing University of Science and Technology (Social Sciences Edition), 2020 (4): 33-39.

[12] Cui Guobin. Reconstruction of Joint Infringement Liability of Internet Service Providers [J]. Studies in Law, 2013 (4): 147-148.

[13] Xu Shi. Experience and Enlightenment of Indirect Intellectual Property Infringement Liability of American Online Platforms [J]. Northern Legal Science, 2018 (5).