Hengdian releases an initiative on protecting film and television data resources, strictly controlling legal risks in AI creation

As scripts, footage, actors' likenesses and voiceprints are continuously transformed into reusable data elements, how to define ownership, how to regulate circulation, and how to prevent infringement are becoming inescapable rule-of-law propositions in the digital transformation of the film and television industry. Recently, the seminar "Digital-Intelligent Empowerment · Law Protecting Light and Shadow — Film and Television Industry Data Governance, AI Application and Rule-of-Law Safeguards" was held in Hengdian, Zhejiang. Representatives from judicial organs, administrative departments, film and television enterprises, internet platforms and research institutes discussed data rights confirmation, compliant AI application and risk prevention and control. As a nationally renowned film and television industry cluster, Hengdian in Dongyang, Zhejiang, brings together a complete industrial chain from script creation and shooting production to distribution and screening, and is also one of the areas with the densest film and television data elements. According to statistics, since 2024, the Dongyang Municipal People's Court has accepted a total of 182 film and television intellectual property cases, recovering illicit gains and losses and ensuring performance in place of more than 23 million yuan. "The world of light and shadow is more wonderful because of the rule of law, and digital-intelligent development moves steadily and far because of rules. Data governance in the film and television industry and rule-of-law safeguards for AI application are systematic projects that require all parties to answer the same question together and work in the same direction," said Feng Shaohua, Party Secretary and President of the Dongyang Municipal People's Court. He stated that this seminar, by seeking advice openly and gathering industry wisdom, aims to promote the building of a film and television industry rule-of-law safeguard framework featuring "Party committee leadership, judicial guidance, industry self-discipline, enterprise primary responsibility, and social co-governance." At the seminar, the Hengdian Film and Television Culture Industry Cluster Management Committee and the Dongyang Municipal People's Court jointly released the "Initiative on Strengthening the Protection of Hengdian Film and Television Data Resources," setting behavioral benchmarks for the industry in data collection, use and circulation across six aspects: strengthening confirmation and protection of film and television data rights, implementing data collection authorization requirements, improving enterprise internal control management systems, strictly controlling legal risks in AI creation, jointly building industry-standard circulation mechanisms, and broadening diverse dispute resolution paths. "We must adhere to the bottom line of 'authorization first, use later' and abandon the mistaken belief that 'data has no copyright,'" the initiative states explicitly. It strictly prohibits scraping film and television feature films, behind-the-scenes footage and other materials without permission for AI model training; it requires prudent use of actors' likenesses, voiceprints and other biometric information to develop digital doubles, strict implementation of informed consent rules, and no generation or dissemination of derivative content beyond authorization. In the keynote sharing session, the three presentations were closely tied to the industry frontline, with no empty theories but rather case reviews, risk breakdowns and practical recommendations. The first presentation was grounded in judicial practice, combining a large amount of judicial data on film and television intellectual property and typical AIGC infringement cases to sort out links with high incidence of legal risk and output quantifiable, implementable governance paths. Many corporate legal affairs staff and platform compliance personnel in the audience took notes while listening, and one participant admitted, "The source of many disputes lies in negligence in the use of data in the early stage." The roundtable discussion after the keynote sharing pushed the seminar atmosphere to a climax. Guests directly confronted new business-form chaos such as illegal scraping of materials to train AI, AI face-swapping, voiceprint cloning and abuse of digital doubles, and exchanged governance ideas from the perspectives of different entities. It is understood that the conference also sorted out and formed a list of data governance and intellectual property risks in the film and television industry chain, accumulating first-hand material for the next step of compiling industry rule-of-law guidelines and releasing a judicial white paper. The Hengdian Film and Television Culture Industry Cluster Management Committee stated that it will take this seminar as a new starting point, promote the effective implementation of the initiative, carry out regular legal popularization lectures and corporate legal health checks, guide market entities to collect, store and circulate data in accordance with the law, conduct AI creation in a standardized manner, and safeguard the high-quality development of the film and television industry with rule-of-law guarantees.