The plagiarism case of "Fairview Weiyang" opens, defendant: It belongs to habitual description

On the afternoon of the 24th, the "Several Writers sued the plagiarism of the novel" Jinxiu Weiyang "" held a session in the second-floor court of the Chaoyang District Court of Beijing City.

Original title: The trial battle for the accused plagiarism of the novel "Jinxiu Weiyang"

kicked off on the afternoon of the 24th. On the afternoon of the 24th, the "Several Writers sued the plagiarism of the novel" Jinxiu Weiyang "" was held in the second-floor court of the Chaoyang District Court of Beijing City. To sum up, it has been about five months since several volunteers and writers launched a rights protection campaign in November last year. But this court session is actually only a prelude to this litigation battle.

There have been many media reports on the cause and process of this case. Around June 2012, Ms. Qin Jian (her real name was Zhou Jing) began to publish the literary work "The Concubine Daughter is Poisoned", which was later renamed "The Fairview of the Year" and was officially published. In 2016, a TV series of the same name adapted from this work was broadcast. In addition, the novel "The Glorious View" was also adapted into comics of the same name and mobile games of the same name.

As early as 2013, the novel "The Fairness of the Year" was questioned as "plagiarism". In response, Qin Jian posted an online article saying that the evidence listed by netizens was "simply modifier words, and similar words can be found in any author's article" and said that "the plot of the book is basically original."

But netizens didn't buy this article. Later, according to volunteer statistics, only nine chapters of the book "Fairview" were original, and the number of plagiarized works exceeded 200. The popularity of the 2016 TV series "The Fairness of the Year" also attracted wider attention to a certain extent. Some people speculate that this TV series will allow Zhou Jing to earn a large amount of income.

In November 2016, several volunteers, writers and screenwriters launched an action to protect their rights, believing that the work was suspected of copying a large number of sentences and plots in existing literary works. In the end, 11 writers sued the original author of "Fairview Weiyang" to the court.

Wang Hailin, a screenwriter who participated in the writer's rights protection, said that in fact, volunteers came to him as early as March last year and said that the novel "Fairview" was plagiarized."They hoped to stop the TV series from being broadcast, but it was unsuccessful." More than 40 screenwriters raised 200,000 yuan in litigation fees for public welfare purposes, and the Qiongyao Cultural Fund also provided special donations to show support."

With the efforts of many parties, in January 2017, this series of cases was filed in the People's Court of Chaoyang District, Beijing City. After the exchange of evidence in this case was completed, well-known martial arts writer Wen Ruian also joined the "battle group". Lawyer Wang Guohua, head of the writers 'rights protection lawyers group in this case, said that since many of Wen Ruian's "Four Famous Arrests" series of works were involved, the number of rights works initiated for rights protection has also increased from the initial 11 to 18.

Lawyer Wang Guohua explained to reporters that the court session on the afternoon of the 24th only involved one rights work "The Love of the Six Emperors Is Unforgettable". The author's pen name Chasing the Moon and Chasing the Flowers."Since the works of the 12 writers who defend rights are independent, only one writer will file a case once. This is a lot of work for lawyers."

"In court today, we asked the defendant to stop the publication and distribution of the novel" Fairview Weiyang "and other commercial use, and also demanded compensation for a total loss of 410500 yuan and an apology." Wang Guohua said that the trial was relatively smooth, and the court should then pronounce a verdict on the case or arrange for other cases in this series of cases.

Relatively speaking, Zhou Jing's side seemed relatively silent. The reporter tried many times to contact Zhou Jing and the publisher of the novel "Fairview Weiyang" for interviews, but was either declined or received no response.

According to CCTV. com, today's first court session lasted about three hours. Neither author was present and his lawyer appeared in court. One of the pieces of evidence submitted by the plaintiff was a comparison of similarities and similar passages between the novel "The Beautiful Everlasting" accused of plagiarism and the plaintiff's work "The Love of the Six Emperors", including 580 sentences and 118 plots.

The defendant defended,"In the two comparison documents, some of the same sentences have been published in previous works, and the descriptions of many sentences and paragraphs are customary descriptive techniques. Therefore, the work claimed by the plaintiff" The Love of the Six Emperors "cannot enjoy copyright in this part."

Whether the novel "The Fairview of the Year" constitutes infringement will ultimately wait for the court's trial and decision. Some lawyers have also pointed out that because literary works do not protect ideas and only protect expression, there will be a certain subjective space in the determination of infringement. In addition, this case involves many rights works. During the exchange of evidence earlier, the evidence submitted by the plaintiff "filled the table." Today's court session may only be the prelude to a litigation battle.