So they were not infringing copyright, and jin yong's outstanding compensation of 5 million yuan was rejected

Star relationship - August 16 morning, the so-called copyright industry "for the first case" of "Jin Yong v. jiangnan" in guangzhou tianhe district people's court sentenced a case: writer Yang Zhi (pen name: jiangnan) by campus novels "ThereTheyWere did not infringe writer essayist (pen name: Jin Yong) status of copyright, but Yang Zhi joint publishing company, with Beijing culture communication co., LTD., Beijing etc.) of the book publishing constitutes unfair competition in the certain degree.

& have spent ThereTheyWere: Peking University student incarnate Jin Yong mingxia cited controversy

Jiang nan, whose real name is Yang zhi, went to the us famous university after graduating from Peking University. He went back to China after completing his PhD and wrote many best-selling books, such as Kyushu shu shu shu, Shanghai Fortress and dragon nationality, which topped the list of Chinese writers twice.

It is reported that ThereTheyWere first written around 2000. At first, it was just an unknown online novel, published in a long-lost online text BBS qing yun academy. Based on the clues of jiangnan's life experience in Peking University, the novel changed the name of Peking University to bianjing university, and the names of students and friends around him to Jin Yong wuxia characters such as guo jing, huang rong, Yang kang, qiao feng, ling fox chong, etc., and wrote about various interesting or inspiring campus life among them.

The book quickly became popular on the Internet, especially among students and alumni of Peking University. There are still many "bianjing university" t-shirts and articles of literature on the campus of Peking University.

In contrast, controversy ensues. ThereTheyWere not only used a lot of the names of characters in Jin Yong's novel, but also had some similarities with the characters' mutual relations, characters' characteristics and story plots. At the same time, Jin Yong's wuxia has been popular for several decades and enjoys high popularity. The reason why this time is popular is that the name of Jin Yong's wuxia is very important. This kind of circumstance, calculate not after all tort?

It took two years to be sentenced and Jin Yong's sky-high compensation of 5 million yuan was dismissed

In fact, the dispute has been in the public eye since October 2016. At that time, Jin Yong handed over a lawsuit to the tianhe district people's court in guangzhou, accusing jiangnan of infringement of ThereTheyWere. However, jiangnan was located in Beijing, and the court in guangzhou did not have his address, so jiangnan did not receive relevant documents, which were published by the court and then put on the Internet by eagle-eyed netizens.

In April 2017, the case was officially opened, and the debate between the two sides was extremely fierce. The core focus was whether the names, relationship, character features and story plots of characters such as linghu chong, guo jing and huang rong in this room belonged to the ideological category or to the original expression, and whether they were protected by China's copyright law.

Jin Yong fang believed that the original wuxia characters had formed a clear classic image in the public consciousness and had a strong recognition degree in the decades of transmission. While "this time", without permission, used such creative elements to attract readers, seek competitive advantage and make profits, infringing the copyright of Jin Yong and constituting unfair competition and demanding compensation of 5 million yuan.

After the court heard, it was concluded that the infringement could not be determined simply by the name of the person. And "here" in character, traits of character and plot, etc., and not based on the works of Jin Yong, but in different time and space background, the surrounding characters to write a new beginning, development, climax, ending, etc., to create campus youth literature works is different from the plaintiff, has the same or similar does not cause readers appreciate the experience. On the whole, it is not enough to constitute infringement. Therefore, it is judged that jiangnan enjoys complete copyright.

At the same time, considering the particularity of this case, namely the extremely extensive influence and appeal of Jin Yong martial arts in Chinese literature and film and television, the act of borrowing names by jiangnan does have the potential to profit, which constitutes unfair competition to some extent. As a result, the judgment awarded Jin Yong more than 1.88 million yuan in various expenses, but denied Jin Yong's claim of 5 million yuan.

It is reported that Jin Yong and jiangnan did not attend the court in person when the verdict was announced, and the lawyers of both sides did not indicate whether to appeal. In the afternoon, jiangnan responded in a public statement on weibo, saying that the original intention of creation was "to amuse oneself and others". The non-infringement is indeed good news, and that "unfair competition" will continue to be analyzed and judged by the lawyer's team. Jin Yong has yet to make any public response to the issue.

At this point, the high-profile copyright case finally settled, or, the first phase of the dust settled. In any case, the final trend of the case will have important reference significance to the copyright, literary circles, especially the creation of the same person.