During May Day, Mr. Zhang, who lives near Zaoyuan Road in the west of Xi ‘an, had an argument with a online celebrity restaurant downstairs. Mr. Zhang said: "During the holiday, the business of this online celebrity restaurant was particularly good. When I was eating with my family, I saw the waiter taking pictures of everyone eating with his mobile phone and stopped it. The waiter said that the restaurant was being broadcast live on the platform, so let me not quarrel." "Without my knowledge, the restaurant broadcasted a number of diners including me on a live broadcast platform. I think the restaurant violated my portrait rights." Mr. Zhang said.
In the era of "national live broadcast", live broadcast is not only a way for some young people to entertain, nor a way for online celebrity to make profits through live broadcast, but also has more commercial considerations, forming a complex business form. On a well-known live video platform, there are many live pictures of merchants. From the video content, some restaurants broadcast live diners for storefront promotion, which caused netizens to watch.
These live broadcasts in public places are often only known by the units or personnel who broadcast them, but those who appear in the live footage are completely unaware. They all unconsciously acted as "extras" broadcast by others and became "props" to help some businesses expand their influence and attract business. I believe that most people, like Mr. Zhang, find it difficult to agree with the business practices.
This kind of webcasting without the public’s knowledge involves not only moral and ethical issues, but also legal issues, which is suspected of infringement. From an ethical point of view, when we have a meal and rest, it is inevitable that we will have some unsightly performances. We certainly don’t want strangers to see them, but now they are broadcast live by merchants to netizens all over the country through hidden cameras, and even become the object of ridicule and teasing by netizens.
From a legal point of view, if the merchant’s live broadcast is to expand its influence, it has a profit-making purpose, which infringes on the portrait right of the live broadcast. Even if the business is not for profit, in the act of using other people’s portraits without the consent of the parties, unless there are legitimate reasons, such as news reports and "wanted orders" from public security organs, it also constitutes an infringement of portrait rights.
Some businesses or units don’t know that this is illegal, which shows that in the era of "national live broadcast", our awareness of privacy protection has not kept pace with the development of information dissemination, which will inevitably lead to the frequent occurrence of similar infringement problems. As a citizen, we should learn from Mr. Zhang in the news. When our privacy rights are violated by businesses, we should actively make our own voices and take up legal weapons to actively defend our rights when necessary. This is a kind of vigilance for businesses and a kind of popularization of law. When there are more and more such people, it will objectively bring restraint to the live broadcast behavior of businesses or individuals. (Tiange)
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