China News Service, Beijing, May 25 (Reporter Yuan Xiuyue) Anyone who has watched this year's CCTV Spring Festival Gala should be familiar with the dance drama "Only Green".

Recently, this dance drama has aroused heated discussions because it was plagiarized. The other party not only copied the costumes and action elements of "Only Blue and Green", but also marked the word "original".

　　In fact, "Only Blue and Green" is not an isolated case. Infringement of dance programs has occurred frequently, and rights protection is not easy.

How to protect the rights of dance works, what is the difficulty of rights protection?

The picture shows a still from the performance of "Only This Green".

Photo courtesy of the performer.

Copy and label original?

Zhejiang Children's Channel apologizes!

　　"In the afternoon, a friend from Zhejiang sent me a video of the 'original' dance "Double Fragrance Path". I watched it... I really hope everyone can respect the original!" On May 22, Zhou Liya, the chief editor of "Only Green", posted on Weibo. The post pointed out that the dance "Shuangxiang Path" plagiarized "Only This Green".

Weibo screenshot

　　As a popular dance drama based on "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains", "Only Green" not only appeared on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, but also sold out during the national tour, bringing about a "green fever".

　　According to media reports, in the choreography of dance movements, the choreographer of "Only Blue and Green" has designed modeling movements such as waiting, watching the moon, contemplating, Dubu, dangerous peaks, and lying stones, aiming at the static characteristics of painting.

In terms of clothing design, the main creative team reviewed a large number of Song Dynasty paintings and documents, and reproduced the clothing styles with the aesthetic characteristics of the Song Dynasty.

　　And these characteristics are also reflected in "Double Fragrance Path".

On May 22, the video account of Zhejiang TV Children's Channel released a dance program video "Shuangxiang Path", and introduced it as "the original dance of the 21st China Tea Festival", which was based on Su Shi's "You Jingshan".

As can be seen from the video, its dance moves and costume design are very similar to "Only This Green".

Screenshot of short video platform

　　Zhou Liya and Han Zhen, the chief editors and directors of "Only This Green", told the media that the show almost copied "Only This Green", with almost 99% similar clothing and action elements.

More importantly, the other party also marked the word "original".

After learning about the plagiarism incident, Zhou Liya went to the video account to leave a message, and soon found herself blocked.

Zhejiang Children's Channel released the dance video "Double Fragrance Path"

　　On May 23, Zhejiang TV Children's Channel issued an apology statement, saying that the dance program was entrusted to Hangzhou Vision Performing Arts Service Company to plan, arrange and perform. be understood and dealt with properly.

Screenshot of short video platform

Interpretation by lawyers: Determining whether two dance works are substantially similar is the key to infringement

　　In recent years, the public has gradually become familiar with novel plagiarism, music plagiarism, etc., but is relatively unfamiliar with dance work plagiarism.

Generally speaking, what are the legal criteria for determining the infringement and plagiarism of dance works?

　　Xu Xiaodan, an entertainment law attorney at Beijing Tianchi Juntai Law Firm, told a reporter from Chinanews.com that determining whether two dance works are substantially similar is the key to infringement. The comparison standards can be considered from the following aspects: selection of comparison samples; static Compare with dynamic combination; whether the background music, choreography, lighting, actor costumes, etc. of the two dances are similar; exclude some common dance movements, and compare only the original parts.

　　Xu Xiaodan said that it is obvious from the video that the overall dance movement design of "Double Fragrance Path" is very similar to the elements such as clothing and Taoism, which infringes the copyright of the right holder.

my country's "Copyright Law" subdivides copyright into personal rights and property rights. Specifically, the dance "Shuangxiang Path" can be said to be suspected of infringing several rights of the original dance work "Only This Green", including the right holder's signature right. , performance rights, information network dissemination rights, in addition, "Shuangxiang Path"'s partial changes to "Only This Green" are suspected of infringing the right of modification or adaptation.

　　When creators find out that they have been infringed, how should they protect their rights?

Xu Xiaodan suggested that when an infringement is discovered, the right holder must first fix the evidence, contact the infringer, and ask him to undertake civil responsibilities such as stopping the infringement, eliminating the impact, making an apology, and compensating for losses according to the situation; If the two parties cannot reach an agreement on related matters such as infringement compensation, the right holder shall use legal weapons to protect his rights and interests, and resolve the matter by entrusting a lawyer to send a "Lawyer's Letter" to the infringer, filing an infringement lawsuit, and other legal means.

It is not uncommon for dance works to be infringed

Where is the difficulty in defending rights?

　　In recent years, dance works have been infringed from time to time, especially with the development of variety shows, there have been constant disputes over dance copyrights in the shows.

　　In 2020, Lin Xiaozhai, a trainee in "Youth With You 2", performed the dance "Beautiful Girl Transformation" on the first stage. Later, some netizens found out that the dance of the show was suspected of plagiarizing the original choreography "Sailor Moon" by the dance teacher Rabbit. Transform".

Lin Xiaozhai Studio apologizes

　　In 2019, Guan Xiaotong and the Voice of the Heart Disabled Art Troupe performed "Avalokitesvara" in Zhejiang Satellite TV's "Ace vs Ace".

Later, the China Disabled Persons' Art Troupe issued a document saying that the ace version of "Avalokitesvara of Thousand Hands" was not authorized by the copyright owner, and there was still a wrong signature.

Statement of China Disabled Art Troupe

　　"Actually, the dance circle has encountered this problem for so many years. Your movements and your structure have been copied, and it is difficult to defend your rights. We also had the 'Yuguang Song' of "The Radio That Never Dies" and the 'Beautiful Woman' of "Du Fu" before. It's not plagiarized." Zhou Liya also said in an interview.

　　Plagiarism is easy, rights protection is cumbersome and expensive, coupled with weak awareness of copyright protection, which also makes the phenomenon of infringement in the dance circle frequent, and many times it disappears, or it is "get on the bus first and then make up the ticket".

　　Where is the difficulty in defending the rights of dance works?

Xu Xiaodan believes that one of the difficulties in safeguarding the rights of dance works is that it is difficult for creators to prove themselves as copyright owners.

　　"Article 17 of my country's "Copyright Law" clarifies that the copyright of film works and TV drama works is enjoyed by the producers, but there is no clear regulation on the copyright owner of dance works, which causes certain difficulties in the identification of copyright owners. It is generally believed that choreographers and directors The author of a dance work, because he created, designed and choreographed a series of continuous movements, postures and expressions of the dance, can be considered as the 'natural person who created the work' in the Copyright Law. The title of choreographer only has the nature of a position, if the dance Where the creator of the movement has another person or persons, or works created under the auspices of a legal or unincorporated organization, the natural person or legal or unincorporated organization involved in the creation shall still be regarded as the copyright owner of the dance work.”

　　Xu Xiaodan said that the second difficulty is that infringing works are blooming everywhere. There are training institutions that promote and teach dance to make money, plagiarize for commercial performances, participate in various competitions, publish videos for online communication, and harvest traffic, etc. The list goes on and on. It takes a lot of manpower, energy and financial resources to crack down on infringements one by one.

The third difficulty lies in the arduous and tortuous process of rights protection, the high cost of rights protection and the difficulty in matching the results, or the long time for rights protection, and the rights holders are exhausted.

　　Xu Xiaodan believes that no matter the difficulty of rights protection, in today's dance industry with frequent infringements and plagiarism, it is still necessary to have some well-known and influential successful rights protection cases in time to drive the positive development of the industry and curb illegal and tortious acts. , while protecting the original author, it will also promote the production of more and better original dance works.

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