Frequent loss of copyright in film and television dramas, infringers are well-trained and industry needs demonstration cases

Although the ratings of "In the Name of the People" continue to rise, it is undeniable that in the face of almost zero-cost infringement, TV stations and platforms that pay high prices to buy copyright will suffer certain losses.

Original title: Who leaked the complete works of "In the Name of the People"? The media went deep into "pyramid schemes" to investigate copyright losses.

The 55-episode hit TV series "In the Name of the People" will end in the near future, and the ratings will continue to rise. However, samples of the play for review came out in mid-April, and many plots have been leaked. How does the complete works flow out? How can the gray industrial chain benefit from it? How do copyright owners defend their rights? The reporter conducted an investigation into this.

Between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m. on April 13,"In the Name of the People" was updated to 28 episodes, and a content about the "Complete Works of" In the Name of the People "appeared on Weibo. 10 minutes later, Xiaomei (pseudonym) posted in several of her film and television agency groups,"People's Updates to Complete Works, Submit Samples for Review! Send it to your circle of friends quickly!" the news. For a while, Weibo, WeChat and other platforms spread widely, and the copyright of "In the Name of the People" was lost. Soon after, Hunan Satellite TV, together with PPTV, Golden Shield Films and other producers, publicly issued a statement saying that they would severely crack down on infringement.

Although the ratings of "In the Name of the People" continue to rise, it is undeniable that in the face of almost zero-cost infringement, TV stations and platforms that pay high prices to buy copyright will suffer certain losses. "Now we are investigating which website the source of the leak came from first. Both Weibo and Baidu Netdisk must assume social responsibility. This time we will follow it to the end, and intellectual property protection needs to be paid attention to." Chen Xuhua, vice president of Juli Media, told reporters.

In fact, this is not the first case of copyright loss in a movie drama. In 2015, the copyright of "Legend of Mi Yue" was lost during the update period; last year, the copyright of "Ode to Joy" was lost... Things of the same nature have happened again and again, and industry insiders believe that the industry urgently needs to be rectified.

Infringement: Well-trained "pyramid scheme organization"

According to reports, the reporter searched for relevant keywords on Weibo and successfully contacted many bloggers who sold the complete works. Buying the complete works from them requires a single "red envelope" of 8.8 yuan. In addition, these bloggers also provide a large number of TV series, movies, and variety resources. These agents all come from the same channel. They call themselves "agents" of film and television, and Xiaomei is their "boss". Currently, their WeChat agent team has more than 2000 people. It is understood that by paying an agency fee of 198 yuan, you can be pulled into the "agent group": the person brought in becomes the downline of the "agent", and the downline is your own master. The downline needs to change the nickname to "downline + name" format for management purposes, and so on. Of the 198 yuan paid offline, online only needs to send a red envelope of 10 yuan to the group owner, and the remaining expenses can be kept and the cost recovered.

Under this simple business model, the film and television "agent" group has grown rapidly. Within 10 days of the reporter joining alone, 150 new "agents" were joined. The reporter talked with a number of "agents", most of whom were part-time "agents", most of whom were students. Some want to spend money to buy resources to see for themselves, while others use communication resources to seek benefits.

Before officially joining, the online service will explain the matters to note: "Resource groups cannot speak, only the boss will send resources, and the speaker will send red envelopes or kick out of the group; Group B can communicate and there will be regular training."

In the film library of the "Agents" group, resources are updated every day. From time to time, unfinished films appear. There are even many theater films. For example,"Speed and Furious 8" appeared in the agent resource library shortly after its release.

In the copyright leak of "In the Name of the People", WeChat, Weibo, and Baidu Cloud were the main channels of communication. Chen Xuhua told reporters that PPTV's public opinion monitoring showed that the number of resources disseminated on WeChat reached one million. On the afternoon of April 14, Baidu's cloud resources could not be shared. The "agents" were a little panicked, but there were still loopholes to exploit. The group owner sent a video at this time, which used pictures and texts to show detailed tutorials on how to bypass the system and share resources with each other on Baidu Cloud Disk.

Compared with uploading from media resource numbers and small websites, the film and television "agent" suspected of infringement is a well-trained team. For example, there is regular training at 9 p.m. every Friday night. Experienced agents teach new "agents" how to spread resources on Weibo, how to post Weibo and swipe comments, how to attract customers, recruit offline, etc., including deleting Weibo in a timely manner, hiding yourself, etc.

"We think this is the culprit and should focus on cracking down on this aspect. They are hidden behind and it is difficult to sue them through civil litigation." Wang Jun, senior partner of Yingke Law Firm, said. Wang Jun once represented Qiong Yao v. Yu Zheng in the plagiarism case.

Human rights defenders: In

addition to "pyramid schemes", the industry needs demonstration cases, the tracking of direct infringers is also very critical.

As long as a work is filmed, it may be lost. The reporter interviewed many people and learned that in general, the materials completed in the early stage, the preliminary cutting stage, the fixed cutting stage, the revision, submission, the radio and television's own distribution and operation versions, the director's cut version, and the production cut version may flow out at different stages. Copyright loss may also occur in the crew's editing staff, editing-related personnel, post-production companies, planning companies, digital distribution and copying companies, etc. This is also why different versions such as "preliminary cuts" and "post-rendered versions" appear in the flowing resources.

For direct infringers, infringement costs are low and profits are high, but the consequences of violating the law are too light. "The consequences of violating the law are nothing compared to his infringement profits." Lawyer Wang Jun said.

According to Article 46 of the Copyright Law, the civil legal liability for infringement includes stopping the infringement, eliminating the impact, making an apology, and compensating for losses. Wang Jun said that it is difficult for the court to give a rigid rule. Each case is very different. Most infringement cases will go unpunished and are likely to be deleted after being discovered. "The civil compensation litigation process will be relatively long, and in customary cases, the amount of compensation awarded to infringing websites is only hundreds of thousands."

As for specific compensation, the Copyright Law stipulates that if the actual losses to the rights holder or the illegal gains of the infringer cannot be determined, the people's court shall award compensation of less than 500,000 yuan based on the circumstances of the infringement.

Wang Jun suggested that practitioners establish internal risk control mechanisms and confidentiality mechanisms, as well as hierarchical management and control mechanisms where responsibilities are assigned to individuals. "There is also another human intervention mechanism, such as the blacklist system."

Editor: Nancy