On December 12, the reporter learned from Chen Liang, a party to the "case of a retired teacher from Hubei Academy accused of plagiarizing students' sculpture works", that the Hongshan District People's Court of Wuhan City has recently made a first-instance judgment on the case. Huang Yong, a teacher who plagiarized students' works, was convicted of infringement and was required to stop the infringement and destroy the infringing sculpture "Spring" from the date of the effective date of the judgment, and apologize to the infringed students through newspapers, WeChat Moments and Douyin accounts within one month, and also bear 8,10 yuan in compensation.

Previously, the case attracted social attention because the infringing student Chen Liang publicly reported his teacher Huang Yong on social platforms, and Huang Yong publicly responded to the controversy by arguing that he had provided opinions for the creation of Chen Liang's "waiting for a big woman's body" sculpture, and later carried out a second creation of the sculpture work and created the work "Spring". Faced with the reality that the infringing works are almost the same as the students' original works, Huang Yong said in an interview that "a knife is also a new work", which quickly aroused criticism from public opinion.

The court held that although the sculpture was a classwork completed by Chen Liang through the unified teaching resources provided by the school during his time at the school, it was still the result of his intellectual labor and was a work of art protected by the Copyright Law. Second, teacher Huang Yong argued that he had provided creative guidance to Chen Liang's sculptures, but the court held that Huang Yong did not participate in the creation and could not be regarded as a co-author, and did not enjoy the corresponding right of authorship. With regard to teacher Huang Yong's argument that he had made a second creation of Chen Liang's sculpture, the court held that in order for the result of the second creation to constitute a work, it needs to make some substantial changes or retouching on the basis of the original work in order to be protected by the Copyright Law. Therefore, Huang Yong's "Spring" constitutes plagiarism of Chen Liang's "Equal Female Body" sculpture.

Yangtze Evening News/Purple Cow News reporter Chen Ran