China News Service, Beijing, March 15th (Liu Yue) Today is March 15th, International Consumer Rights Day.
In fact, the protection of consumer rights is not only in the fields of catering, service, finance, etc., but also in the entertainment industry. The audience also needs to keep their eyes open, see through the strange and chaotic phenomena, and further "crack down on counterfeiting."
Data traffic "all bubbles"?
In 2018, the incident of "Cai Xukun's Weibo reposted over 100 million" attracted public attention.
According to the number of Weibo users at that time, the forwarding volume of 100 million means that one out of every three Weibo users forwarded Cai Xukun's Weibo.
In June 2019, the person behind the manipulation of the above-mentioned Weibo brushing incident was investigated.
In March 2021, the China Judgment Documents Network announced the judgment of Cai Kunmiao, the developer of the "Xingyuan" APP, and sentenced him to the crime of providing programs for invading computer information systems.
Judgment in the Cai Kunmiao case.
Source: China Judgment Documents Network
The verdict shows that the defendant Cai Kunmiao was sentenced to 5 years in prison and a fine of 100,000 yuan.
Zuo Cuicui, a lawyer from Beijing Qinglu Law Firm, said in an interview with reporters: "The defendant violated Article 285, Paragraph 3 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, that is, providing a program specifically for invading computer information systems, or knowingly Implementing illegal and criminal acts of invading computer information systems and providing programs for them, the circumstances are serious."
In fact, "Xingyuan" is not an exception. As long as you search for "buy and forward" on Weibo, there will be a large number of merchants providing similar services.
After the reporter added a certain merchant, he got a price list with clearly marked prices.
It shows that data such as forwarding, likes, and comments can be "watered out" with money, and there is no guarantee for the transaction process.
Screenshot of the conversation
It can be seen that the behavior of swiping likes, swiping lists, and retweeting on Weibo will not only create false data traffic, but also have a serious impact on the public order of cyberspace, the account security of real-name users, and the stability of Weibo servers.
In response to such phenomena, the Cyberspace Administration of China issued the "Regulations on the Ecological Governance of Network Information Content" in 2020, which clearly stipulated that traffic fraud and other behaviors shall not be carried out by manual or technical means, and the ecological order of the network shall be destroyed; four departments including the Cyberspace Administration of China issued The "Regulations on the Administration of Algorithm Recommendations for Internet Information Services", which came into effect in March this year, also clearly prohibits the use of algorithms to manipulate the list, control hot searches, etc. to interfere with the presentation of information.
Box office ratings "squeeze water" imminent
In the film and television industry, this kind of "fake" incident is not an isolated case.
Previously, films such as "Ip Man 3" and "Later Us" have all been deeply involved in box office fraud.
The reporter's detailed investigation found that there are generally two ways of box office fraud: "stealing the box office" and "ghost field".
The behavior of "stealing the box office" is mainly "relocating flowers and trees": some businesses transfer the profits of popcorn and cola in the package to the book of movie tickets; Audiences who buy A movie tickets will issue B movie tickets, and the actual amount obtained will be included in the B movie box office.
"Ghost field" means that on the ticketing software, the midnight and early morning shows that should have a low attendance rate are full, or the same theater is scheduled to show two movies within half an hour, and the abnormal box office pictures generated in them are fully charged. , so as to achieve the purpose of speculating on box office data and taking advantage of marketing.
"Counterfeiters may be subject to civil liability or administrative penalties for violating Article 8 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China and Article 34 of the Film Industry Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China." Zuo Cuicui introduced , "In 2016, due to the box office fraud of "Ip Man 3", the distributor of the film was ordered to suspend business for one month by the regulatory authorities, and the related theaters and e-commerce companies were warned; Fang and the producer believe that the latter used unfair competition to seize the filming rate and squeezed its box office revenue, and requested the court to compensate its economic losses.”
Compared with box office fraud, ratings fraud is more difficult to prevent.
There are two main ways to fake ratings: one is to "pollute" sample households, and the other is to tamper with data.
Taking the "polluted" sample households as an example, the counterfeiting party affects the viewing habits of the sample households in the viewing survey through various means such as advertising and door-to-door gifts, thereby increasing the viewing rate of a certain TV channel.
Zuo Cuicui believes that the sample household information usually belongs to the strictly confidential information of the viewing and research institutions, and the fraudulent party's behavior of obtaining the information by improper means may constitute an infringement of business secrets, "This kind of behavior violates the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China. "Article 9, you need to bear civil liability or be subject to administrative penalties, and in serious cases may even be subject to criminal penalties."
The purpose of box-office fraud is to raise box-office data, and theaters can get benefits from it. Producers and distributors can use the herd mentality to take advantage of marketing to attract more audiences.
And ratings fraud can maximize the interests of TV stations, advertisers, and producers.
Whether it is box office or ratings fraud, it is inseparable from the "monopoly" and "collusion" within the industry.
Symptoms can only be prescribed.
In March 2017, the "Film Industry Promotion Law" was promulgated, which clearly stipulates that film distribution companies and movie theaters should count and provide true and accurate film sales revenue, and must not use improper means such as creating false transactions, falsely reporting sales revenue, deceiving and misleading. audience, disrupting the order of the film market.
In 2019, the State Administration of Radio and Television launched a big data system for comprehensive evaluation of ratings, and subsequently issued the "Regulations on the Statistics and Management of the Radio and Television Industry", clarifying that no institution or individual may interfere with or destroy the statistics of ratings and listening rates carried out by the competent radio and television authorities in accordance with the law. Create fake ratings.
In the event of statistical falsification or falsification, the principal person in charge of the unit to which he belongs shall bear the primary responsibility.
Be wary of new investment scams in the film and television industry
If the above two fraudulent methods belong to the long-standing behavior of some capital to decorate Taiping, then in recent years, new scams against investors in the film and television industry have also increased.
In 2020, the Shanghai police reported the city's first film and television investment contract fraud case in the city that defrauded investors by inflating production costs and exaggerating expected returns.
Because film and television investment has the characteristics of short exit period and high income, many fraudsters use this feature to attract many investors.
Common deceptive methods include using false "joint production" names for publicity, falsely listing celebrities to increase their credibility, forging upstream film and television investment contracts, setting up special film and television investment platforms to harvest leeks, selling box office dividends in the name of selling derivatives, etc. .
The specific means are nothing more than the following three:
1. Use false "joint-produced" names for publicity and fake stars to increase real credibility, that is, under the banner of a certain authority, a certain company, or a certain institution, to seek cooperation and induce investment;
2. Packaging the film and television works into a high-yield financial product, the previous project book and the actual cast are very different, and use the time difference to fabricate a high yield to attract investors to enter the game;
3. Forged upstream film and television investment contracts, set up a special film and television investment platform to harvest "leeks", and fooled investors into signing film share subscription contracts on the grounds of transferring investment shares, which was actually sold at a premium in the form of crowdfunding.
Taking "Water Gate Bridge of Changjin Lake" as an example, before the film was released, many film and television companies appeared on the Internet under the banner of selling the film's investment share and promising high returns, attracting money from investors from all over the world.
Soon, Bona Films, the main investor and main controller of the film, issued a statement saying that it has never authorized any third party to carry out related financing business.
Bona Film Group statement.
Tuyuan Bona Film Group Weibo
"After the defrauded investors 'run away' in the film and television company, it is difficult to recover the money, and the loss is huge. If the amount involved is relatively large and the circumstances are serious, the perpetrator may violate Article 224 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China. It constitutes the crime of contract fraud and will be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law." Zuo Cuicui said.
When it comes to this new type of investment scam, Zuo Cuicui can't hide his worries.
He emphasized that another related phenomenon in recent years is also worthy of investors’ attention and vigilance. “Some film and television companies hold real investment shares, but the film suffers losses. In order to transfer risks, they promote their projects through WeChat group chats and other methods to attract investors. And signed a joint investment contract with it, so that the loss of the film is actually borne by the investor. In this regard, we remind investors that they should fully understand the high-risk characteristics of film and television investment, and be cautious in investment activities. "
In such cases, the film and television company often disappears after receiving the payment and achieving its purpose, and it is difficult for the investor to successfully execute the judgment even if the winning judgment is obtained.
Zuo Cuicui specifically pointed out that the court has also reminded in the judgment of a certain type of case: "Non-professional investors should fully understand the characteristics of high investment, high risk and high return in the film and television industry, and fully verify whether the film and television drama project is not signed before signing the contract. Filing, whether to obtain a shooting, public screening license, etc., and check the authorization documents of the signatory, to judge whether the premium for the transfer of the income share of the film and television project is reasonable and whether the contract purpose is fulfilled, etc., make prudent decisions, and be cautious in investment channels through the Internet, telecommunications Participate in investment in film and television projects through marketing and other methods.”
The falsification of various data and indicators is not only against the principles of business ethics and honest operation, but also means that the order of fair competition is destroyed, and the disordered market can easily lead to the negative effect of bad money driving out good money.
In fact, the fake data piled up by money is a bubble after all, and only real works are the foundation for the rapid development of the entertainment industry.
Since last year, the Central Cyberspace Administration of China has deployed and launched a special campaign of "Crackdown on Traffic Fraud, Black Public Relations, and Internet Slaves", which will be divided into stages to control scores, control evaluations, swipe orders to speculate, swipe volume to increase fans, and swipe rankings to canvass votes. Wait for the traffic fraud problem.
Whether it is the heavy blow of "Operation Qinglang" or the promulgation and revision of various laws and regulations, they all highlight the iron-fisted policy and firm determination of the relevant state departments to strictly control the phenomenon of "counterfeiting" in the film and television industry. For some people, it is also a serious warning.
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