China News Service Client, Beijing, May 10 (Reporter Song Yusheng) The TV series "Datang Mingyue", adapted from the online novel, recently announced the cast cast, which attracted the attention of netizens. However, in addition to the TV series itself, another thing has begun to attract everyone's attention-there is a huge difference between the right to adapt the novel and the income obtained by the original author. How is this situation caused? What's behind the story? The reporter conducted an interview.

Starting from the "Datang Mingyue" page of the Chinese website. webpage Screenshot

"starting point"

　　In June 2011, an online novel called "Datang Mingyue" began to be updated on the starting point in Chinese.

　　This web article is a historical novel with female characters as the main theme.

　　In the story, the heroine traversed the era of "Wu Zhou captured Tang" from the fourth year of Emperor Gaozong's Yonghui to the first year of Wu Zetian's vertical arch. She originally wanted to be a spectator of the "eternal drama" to eat melons, but she found herself to be important A member.

　　This is the beginning of Lan Yunshu's online novel. At that time, Lan Yunshu was still a "little transparent" in the Internet.

　　Even, she was "writing while studying at Tsinghua University". In addition to "playing tickets", "writing web articles" is also a way for her to escape her doctoral thesis.

　　In the same year, under the circumstance that "there was no such thing as copyright," Lan Yunshu signed a contract with Qidian.com.

　　According to this contract, the starting point will recommend the corresponding list to the author of the web article, so that the readers of the platform will notice the novel; the reader can receive half of the subscription income at the starting point, and the author can take 40% if there is copyright adaptation income. .

　　But it was this contract that later made Lan Yunshu regret it.

　　Having said that, online literature at the time was not as popular as it is today.

Book cover of "Datang Mingyue".

"middleman"

　　According to reports, in 2013, Lan Yunshu discovered that the starting point had cost more than 100,000 yuan. Later, someone found her and said that the copyright of Datang Mingyue had been sold.

　　The reporter learned that at the time, the starting point sold the film and television copyright for 8 years in the upper middle part of Datang Mingyue at the price of 450,000 yuan. After tax deduction, Lan Yunshu received about 160,000 yuan.

　　On the 8th, Yuewen Group confirmed to reporters from China News that in 2013, the starting point of the Chinese website did sell the film and television copyright for 8 years in the middle of Datang Mingyue for 450,000 yuan.

　　As for the level of the 450,000 in that year, the opinions of all parties are not consistent.

　　The subsequent third-party commercial transaction behavior of this work is beyond the imagination of many people.

　　It turned out that it was only the "middleman" who bought "Datang Mingyue". Later, the film and television company bought it twice from the "middleman" to get the right to adapt the TV series.

　　Insiders revealed to reporters that the film company's first deal with the "middleman" was in 2014, when it bought the upper five-year TV series adaptation rights in the three parts of "Datang Mingyue" and spent 5 million yuan.

　　In 2019, this 5-year contract expires. In order to film the TV series, the film and television company also bought the right to adapt the TV series in the upper and middle parts of "Datang Mingyue" from the "middleman". This time it cost 8 million yuan.

　　Together, the TV series adaptation rights for this work were sold for a total of 13 million yuan. But for the original author, all she got was about 160,000 yuan obtained through the starting contract.

　　The reporter noted that previous reports revealed that the "middleman" "not even a film and television company" but "a natural person". But the reporter failed to confirm the identity of the "middleman".

　　Regarding the "13 million yuan transaction" situation, Yuewen Group responded that this is a third-party commercial transaction, and the starting point cannot be judged whether it is true.

"No way"?

　　In May 2020, the TV series "Datang Mingyue" finally announced the cast. At the same time, topics related to online literature have also begun to attract public attention.

In May 2020, the official cast of the TV series "Datang Mingyue" was announced. Weibo screenshot

　　The story about "Datang Mingyue" sold 13 million yuan, and the original author only scored 160,000 yuan, was frequently reported.

　　In many articles, the story of Lan Yunshu has become a typical case between the author of the web and the platform.

　　Zhang Hongbo, director general of the Chinese Copyright Association, said in an interview with a reporter from ChinaNews.com that such a situation depends on how the contract between the platform and the author of the online text is agreed, but the premise is that "the contract signed by both parties must be reasonable Legal, conform to public order and good customs. "

　　At the same time, he admitted that the situation in which middlemen sold original works through packaging design and then sold them to film and television companies did exist in recent years. The middlemen will naturally earn the difference.

　　People familiar with the matter also told reporters that IP had just emerged in 2013, and there will indeed be situations where middlemen who have market information earn huge price differences.

　　Zhang Hongbo believes that on the one hand, web writers must not only be familiar with literary creation, but also need to understand the market value and development prospects of their works.

　　As for how web writers retain the right to speak in the contract, and how to establish a harmonious symbiotic relationship with the platform, he pointed out that this requires the web writers to negotiate with the platform in an organized manner, to understand the profession and the market. Both the platform and the authors of the signed online articles should work together to respect each other and maximize the benefits of the works through the contract, which is conducive to the development of Chinese online literature.

　　But for the original author of "Datang Mingyue", it seems that he can only "recognize" this kind of thing.

　　The reporter noticed that on May 6, Lan Yunshu also talked about it on his Weibo, and said, "(TV series) producers also think I am miserable and want to buy from me, but there is no way !"(Finish)