National Film and Television Copyright Expert Appraisal Committee was established to extend professional hands to curb plagiarism

At the 2017 Spring Beijing TV Program Fair, which opened on the 20th, the National Film and Television Copyright Expert Appraisal Committee composed of 14 legal experts and 12 experts from the literary and artistic circles was announced to declare war on the trend of plagiarism in the film and television industry.

Yu Zheng's "Palace Lock and City" copied Qiongyao's "Plum Blossom","Three Lives of the Third Life of Ten Miles Peach Blossom" copied "Peach Blossom Debt", and "The Fairview of the Eternal" copied 219 novels... In recent years, many popular film and television dramas, plagiarism has become the "standard". At the 2017 Spring Beijing TV Program Fair, which opened on the 20th, the National Film and Television Copyright Expert Appraisal Committee composed of 14 legal experts and 12 experts from the literary and artistic circles was announced to declare war on the trend of plagiarism in the film and television industry.

Looking at various copyright cases in recent years, film and television copyright cases have ranked first all year round. Su Zelin, deputy director of the Legal Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress, said that such cases are not only large in number and high in proportion, but also new situations and new problems emerge one after another,"especially the identification of script plagiarism, plagiarism between dramas, and originality. The identification of issues such as nature and uniqueness has greatly increased the difficulty of hearing cases. It is imperative to establish a professional appraisal agency."

The work of plagiarism and identification is very technical. Wang Hailin, a screenwriter who is an expert on the appraisal committee, explained that if it is a copy of text, the law clearly stipulates how many words exceed are considered plagiarism, which is easier to judge."In film and television copyright disputes, cases of illegal adaptation are everywhere. For example, Qiong Yao sued Yu Zheng. In the case of plagiarism, the plots, lines, and characters of the two are different. If you want to judge the existence of plagiarism from the perspective of dramatic functions, the judge may not be able to judge and require expert assistance."

The establishment of the appraisal committee is equivalent to building a dam for the surging tide of plagiarism, and it also marks that the widespread film and television infringement is finally expected to be "mass" justice. Liu Heping, executive vice president of the China TV Drama Writers Working Committee, said that the main task of the appraisal committee is to accept the court's authorization to identify and compare film and television copyright plagiarism cases and safeguard the legal rights of intellectual property rights. In addition to the expert database composed of 26 experts, the appraisal committee also has four permanent offices, namely, the legal office, the appraisal office, the difficult case research room and the review room. Liu Heping said: "After detailed identification and comparison, the experts submitted them to the court as an important basis for the court judges to try."

In fact, the work of plagiarism identification is very arduous. The starting point of the plagiarism incident of "Fairview Weiyang" was that a college student spent nearly three years collecting relevant evidence, and the comparative written materials finally submitted to the court piled up to 1.5 meters high. Yu Fei, a famous screenwriter, has participated in more than a dozen copyright lawsuits, including the comparison of scripts of "The Legend of Mi Yue". He once bluntly said: "To be honest, I try to avoid doing this kind of work again because the workload is too big." After the establishment of this appraisal committee, different experts will be selected for appraisal in different cases, and the expert's time will be taken into account to the greatest extent possible. Wang Hailin suggested that the identification fees for experts should also be increased accordingly.

The current dilemma is that most works suspected of plagiarism are not afraid of judgment. In the face of the hundreds of millions of yuan in film and television copyright fees they can earn, compensation of hundreds of thousands of yuan or even several million yuan is just a drop in the bucket. In the future, the expert appraisal fees of the appraisal committee will be borne by the party that loses the lawsuit, which will increase the cost of illegal activities to a certain extent. Liu Heping revealed that the establishment of the appraisal committee will also provide positive and multi-angle suggestions on the Copyright Law that is being revised."The relevant provisions on film and television copyright cases that everyone feels are obviously unfair will be further improved during the revision of the Copyright Law, and the cost of plagiarism and infringement will be higher."

Editor: Nancy