News

Writer’s Introduction

Xiao Dongping

Partner, JAVY Law Firm

The Beijing News Entertainment recently reported a copyright dispute two years ago: In January 2016, the author of the series "Ghost Blowing the Lantern",  the authour, Tianxia Bachang, believed that the movie "Nine-story Demon Tower" had a serious impact on "The Ancient City of Ghost Blowing Lantern". Distortion and tampering violated the author's right to protect the integrity of the work, and the film party of "Nine Demon Tower" was sued to the court. On August 9, 2019, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court concluded the infringement case of the movie "Nine Demon Tower". The second-instance judgment determined that, in the case of obtaining the right to adapt the original work, the changes made to the adapted work should meet the necessary limits.

The author couldn't help but think of a plot in the American drama "Friends". As a performer, Joey played the leading role in the soap opera "Our Days" and couldn't help but feel proud. He often randomly changed the lines created by the screenwriter during the performance. The screenwriter couldn’t help being angry. He didn’t take the relevant subjects of the adaptation of the film to court like the author of the novel "Ghost Blowing the Lantern", but directly arranged the "death" of Joey's starring role in the script. In this way, the protagonist Joey was fired by the crew halfway through.

Law is the code of conducting, and logic is the guide of thought. The questions raised by the Beijing News must first be determined by the law.

Article 31 of my country’s "Copyright Law" stipulates that publishers, performers, producers of audio and video recording, radio stations, television stations, etc., who use other people’s works in accordance with the relevant provisions of this law will not infringe upon the author’s right of authorship, modification, or protection of the work, the right to integrity and the right to be paid.

Article 51 stipulates that without the permission of the right holder, the following actions are not allowed:

(1) Deliberately delete or change the rights management information of works, layout designs, performances, audio and video products, or radio and television, except for those that cannot be avoided due to technical reasons.

Article 52 (4) stipulates that anyone who distorts or falsifies another person's work will bear civil liabilities such as stopping the infringement, eliminating the impact, making an apology, and compensating for losses according to the circumstances.

Article 10 of the Judicial Interpretation of the Copyright Law of our country makes it clearer that if the copyright owner permits others to make his work into a film and create a work in a similar way to film making, he will be deemed to have agreed to make necessary changes to his work, but such changes must not distort or tamper with the original work.

Judging from these laws and regulations, does script adaptation respect the market or respect the author? There is an answer to this question.

From the perspective of the origin of rights and legal provisions, Script adaptation should respect the author. However, script adaptation is a part of market behavior after all. The attributes and requirements of commercial interests also determine that it must respect the market and audience, and adapt it from the perspective of catering to the audience’s hobbies, thereby breaking the integrity of the work, and even adapting it to "distortion." The degree of "tampering with the original work" has led to a conflict between respecting for the market and respecting for the author.

According to the law, while the script adaptation conflicts with respecting the market and respecting the author happens, obviously, the author should be respected. However, the judgment of the Beijing Intellectual Property Court mentioned in the article raises another question for us: a mere 50,000 Yuan of spiritual compensation enable the stakeholders involve in the adaptation of the script to respect the market and the temptation in the face of huge market interests and temptations. When there is a conflict between respecting the author, do you choose to "respect the author"?

Joey in “Friends”, after the "accidental death", there is a high probability that he will not no longer respect the screenwriter's lines. Judging from the effect of this anonymous screenwriter's "god manipulation" of protecting his own lines, the protection of intellectual property rights such as copyrights, precautions and self-help, may be more effective than legal remedies such as simple lawsuits after the event. For domestic copyright owners, self-help is also simple and easy: asking a lawyer who is good at intellectual property protection to design and draft a more complete contract...

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Statement:

This article was originally created by the lawyers of JAVY Law Firm. It only represents the author's own views and should not be regarded as a formal legal opinion or suggestion issued by JAVY Law Firm or its lawyers. If you need to reprint or quote any content in this article, please indicate the source.