IP novel authors and film and television screenwriters appealed to court for the signature case of the screenwriter of "The Legend of Mi Yue"

Although it has been broadcast for more than half a year, the battle of words surrounding the hit drama "Legend of Mi Yue" has not stopped. Yesterday, Jiang Shengnan, author of the novel of the same name in "The Legend of Miyue," accused the drama company Le Huaer Film and Television and screenwriter Wang Xiaoping of infringement. The trial was officially opened in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. The screenwriter Yu Fei said with concern that this will only lead to the drama company being more cautious when signing contracts with the screenwriter in the future, and the conflict between the IP novel author represented by Jiang Shengnan and the film and television screenwriter will also increase.

it has been broadcast for more than half a year, the battle of words surrounding the hit drama "Legend of Mi Yue" has not stopped. Yesterday, Jiang Shengnan, author of the novel of the same name in "Legend of Mi Yue", accused drama company Le Huaer Film and Television and screenwriter Wang Xiaoping of infringement. The court was officially opened in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. The details of the dispute over the authorship of "Legend of Mi Yue" were also made public.

Returning to his dissatisfaction with the screenwriter's signature, the original author sued the drama company

as a companion piece of "Legend of Zhen Huan" and director Zheng Xiaolong's latest masterpiece. The TV series "Legend of Mi Yue" has attracted much attention from the beginning. On January 5, 2015, on the same day that "Legend of Mi Yue" held its first media conference in Hengdian, Jiang Shengnan, who claimed to be the author of the original novel of the same name "Legend of Mi Yue", posted a long article online criticizing the drama company for "suspected of false publicity and wrong signature of the screenwriter." A controversy over the signing of the script began.

According to Jiang Shengnan at the time, after she was invited to serve as a screenwriter for the play, she submitted 53 episodes of scripts, but there was no news since then. Although the drama company paid the relevant remuneration as scheduled, it was blocked from news during filming until June 2014, when "Legend of Mi Yue" officially launched external publicity."The official poster of" Legend of Mi Yue "was signed 'Screenwriter: Jiang Shengnan, Wang Xiaoping's"." Jiang Shengnan said that Ms. Wang Xiaoping had only put forward a few review opinions as the director,"How can I be listed as a screenwriter?"

Jiang Shengnan filed a lawsuit with the People's Court of Lucheng District, Wenzhou City on June 9, 2015, claiming that the drama company, Dongyang City Leshi Huaer Film and Television Culture Co., Ltd.(referred to as "Huaer Film and Television" for short), did not mark the words "adapted based on Jiang Shengnan's novel of the same name" in its official publicity activities and listed Wang Xiaoping as the chief screenwriter, infringing on the plaintiff's copyright.

During yesterday's court hearing, Tao Xinliang, Jiang Shengnan's lawyer, reiterated the above request again, and emphasized that after receiving Jiang Shengnan's revised 53-episode script, the drama company failed to inform him whether the script was suitable, and hired a new screenwriter to revise the script. Jiang Shengnan did not know about it.

The results of the controversy comparison are quite different, and the size of the contribution is the key.

"Whether or not the writer should be signed as the chief screenwriter may depend on the degree of contribution the writer has to the script." Wang Jun, a lawyer at Yingke Law Firm who once served as Qiongyao's lawyer in the case of Qiongyao v. Yu Zheng, said that this requires the court to make a judgment based on the results of a script comparison.

In yesterday's trial, two diametrically opposed comparison results were presented to the judge.

According to Yu Fei, an expert witness of the defendant and deputy secretary-general of the Editorial Committee of the China Broadcasting Association, both Jiang Shengnan and Wang Xiaoping had requested the Editorial Committee to participate in the script comparison in the name of rights protection as members. However, during the actual comparison, Jiang Shengnan refused to provide the script. Yu Fei finally used Jiang Shengnan's script provided by the drama company to compare it with Wang Xiaoping's script, and came to the result: "Wang Xiaoping made major revisions to the script accounted for 28.2%, completely different areas accounted for 48.3%, and basically identical areas accounted for 23.5%."

At the same time, Jiang Shengnan's lawyer stated that according to a comparison of Jiang Shengnan's script and the broadcast version of the TV series, the character settings and character relationships in the TV series all came from Jiang Shengnan's 53-episode scripts. The same proportion in character settings reached 99.4%, and the proportion of specific storyline was the same or similar plot also reached 58%.

"These two completely opposite results were submitted to court. During the pre-trial questioning stage, the judge listened to the comparison methods and results of both parties and made relevant inquiries, but did not give a biased answer as to which result to use." Yu Fei revealed.

However, in the view of Wang Jun, who has no interest, the comparison logic used by Jiang Shengnan's lawyer does not apply to this case."The essence of the 'Qiongyu Case' is to find similarities between two different works," Plum Blossom Row "and" Palace Lock Liancheng ". In the 'Jiang Wang Case', the creative direction of the plaintiff and defendant is both" The Legend of Mi Yue ". When comparing scripts, the focus and focus still depend on the proportion and volume of the differences in the specific creative content of both parties."

Extend the "chief screenwriter" or intensify industry conflicts

According to Xue Junfu, the lawyer representing Hua 'er Film and Television, in the original creative contract signed between Jiang Shengnan and Hua' er Film and Television, it was clearly stipulated that the drama company had the right to decide "the ordering of the writers 'signatures" and pointed out that "if the script submitted by Jiang Shengnan still fails to meet the requirements of Hua' er Film and Television Company after revision, Hua 'er Film and Television Company has the right to hire other script creators to revise it based on the script that Jiang Shengnan has completed." He added that this means that the drama company has the right to decide whether to change the screenwriter based on the situation of the script.

However, Jiang Shengnan pointed out that although the contract stipulates that the drama company has the right to decide on the ordering of signatures, the signature requirement of "chief screenwriter" does not appear in the contract, and believes that "the chief screenwriter's statement gives people the feeling of overall control." Giving Wang Xiaoping the chief screenwriter's signature exaggerated his contribution to the script to a certain extent, and easily made people underestimate Jiang Shengnan's contribution.

In Yu Fei's view, Jiang Shengmen's views "somewhat expose the author's layman." During the pre-trial questioning stage of the court, Yu Fei introduced to the judge the meaning of "chief screenwriter" in the TV series screenwriter's signature."Such a position is generally held by a person who plays a leading and decision-making role in creation. The work done by this person is very likely to include proposing ideas, finding suitable screenwriters, coordinating the relationships between screenwriters and between screenwriters and management, leading the creative process, personally creating sample sets and even creating part of the script (It may also be possible not to write an episode), etc., so the chief writer's signature has nothing to do with how much script is written."

"If I choose between 'chief screenwriter' and 'screenwriter', I will definitely choose 'screenwriter' because 'chief screenwriter' sometimes makes industry insiders think that he or she did not write the script personally, but was just responsible for planning and coordination." Yu Fei said.

Due to the huge controversy caused by this dispute over authorship rights, Yu Fei said with concern that this will only lead to more strict vigilance in the future when signing contracts with screenwriters, and the conflict between IP novel authors represented by Jiang Shengnan and film and television screenwriters will also increase.

News Memory

Review of the copyright dispute in "The Legend of Mi Yue" In

2009, Jiang Shengnan published some manuscripts of "Empress Dowager Xuan of Qin" on the Jinjiang Literature website, with about 7000 words.

On August 28, 2012, Jiang Shengnan signed a script creation contract with Dongyang City Huaer Film and Television Company. In the same year, the two parties signed a "Supplementary Agreement", and Jiang Shengnan promised to publish and distribute the novel of the same name only during the same period as the TV series "Legend of Mi Yue" was broadcast.

At the end of March 2014, Jiang Shengnan delivered a total of 53 episodes of "The Legend of Mi Yue" in stages and delivered them to Dongyang Huaer Film and Television Company.

On June 9, 2015, Jiang Shengnan sued Wang Xiaoping and Huaer Film and Television for infringement of the screenwriter's authorship.

From August to November 2015, Jiang Shengnan's novel "The Legend of Mi Yue" was published and distributed by Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House.

On November 30, 2015, the TV series "Legend of Mi Yue" was launched.

On March 22, 2016, the 2015 10th China Writers List was announced. Jiang Shengnan received 13.5 million yuan in royalties from his novel "The Legend of Mi Yue."

On April 17, 2016, Wang Xiaoping revealed on Weibo that a lawsuit had been filed in the Dongcheng Area Court of Beijing City against Jiang Shengnan's reputation infringement.

On April 18, 2016, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court issued a final judgment, finding that Jiang Shengnan, the screenwriter of "The Legend of Mi Yue", had breached contract to publish the novel.

On July 6, 2016, Huaer Film and Television sued Jiang Shengnan, the novel publishing house and seller together with the court for copyright infringement, and the Haidian District Court of Beijing City formally accepted the case.

Editor: Nancy