Last weekend, a video account “live broadcast” the Broadway musicals “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Hamilton” successively. Both “live broadcasts” were interrupted by a large number of user complaints due to “no broadcast copyright”. Since then, the video account has continued. The post stated that “the appeal has been successful, and tonight’s “Hamilton” will be broadcast as scheduled”, and openly invited netizens to join the group to receive more resources. Soon, the content was removed by the publisher. However, such operations have aroused strong dissatisfaction and widespread concern in the industry.
Since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, live performances have become more and more luxurious. Under the epidemic, the rhythm of performances in many theaters was disrupted, and even offline performances were temporarily suspended. In order to enrich the audience’s home and cultural life and maintain the audience’s enthusiasm for performances, “Cloud Performing Arts” came into being. The chaos of “pirated live broadcast” is undoubtedly a huge blow to the healthy development of the industry. Many people in the industry have told the Beijing Youth Daily reporter that the pirated broadcast will continue, and the cloud exhibition of high-quality resources will be unsustainable.
hard to guard against
Unauthorized “live broadcast” free online viewing of the whole film
Both “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Hamilton” are big hits in the field of musical theatre – the former is a masterpiece of musical theatre master Andrew Lloyd Webber, which has been performed in London’s West End and New York’s Broadway since the 1980s. Maintaining a high level of attention; “Hamilton” is a big hit in recent years. This musical, which premiered in 2015 and swept 11 Tony Awards, was purchased by Disney with a copyright fee of up to 75 million US dollars. Due to the impact of the epidemic, it was changed to Disney+ online broadcast, which brought a 74% increase in downloads and nearly one million users for the APP in the first weekend of its launch, which became a textbook case for the launch of the theater stage. It can be seen that whether it is a live performance or a paid broadcast, these two “masterpieces” are extremely attractive to musical fans.
“In the absence of copyright, the popularity of these two popular dramas is used to quickly attract traffic and establish a community to monetize. This is undoubtedly an infringement.” For such copyright-free live broadcasts, people in the industry have expressed strong dissatisfaction.
In fact, before this, such chaos is not uncommon. Not only are famous dramas easy to be stolen, but well-known pianists like Argerich and Yuja Wang have been “live broadcast” in a similar way. “Before official high-definition video recording became a craze, the main method of piracy was sneak recording, and the picture quality was worrying, so not many people paid attention to it. This kind of video is attracting more and more attention.” said Kong Xiaoxi, Marketing Director of Aozhewei Culture, which belongs to the “New Live” high-definition screening series. “New Scene” is committed to presenting the innovative and ideological outstanding stage works in the world to Chinese audiences through the enjoyment of high-quality audio and video projected in high-definition. But at the same time, the repeated piracy has also made them distressed, angry and discouraged. “Since we introduced high-definition screening, we have never stopped fighting against piracy.” Kong Xiaoxi revealed that piracy not only includes “live broadcast” without authorization, but also uses the entire film to watch free online fans, and even more so on second-hand platforms. The public sale of pirated full-length films is overwhelming.
Repeatedly banned
Genuine cost is high, piracy “zero cost”
Piracy is infuriating, but why is it banned repeatedly? The new scene broke through the hurdle on its social media, “It’s such an infuriating and helpless fact: the cost of rights protection is several times higher than the cost of breaking the law.”
“Introducing genuine copies is a time-consuming, labor-intensive and expensive thing.” Kong Xiaoxi said that copyrights are subdivided into many categories, including online copyrights, offline copyrights, DVD and peripheral copyrights, and different copyright categories are handled by different copyright parties. , you need to find a different agent to talk to. “Some viewers suggested that offline performances cannot be watched during the epidemic. Can they be watched online? In fact, most of the time, they cannot be seamlessly converted, because they belong to different copyright categories.”
The introduction of copyright is not enough. After the introduction, subtitles need to be produced, and high-definition images also need to meet certain screening conditions. In addition, posters, presentations and other materials must be prepared, as well as a series of processes such as approval. These procedures are completed to really meet the audience. During this period, a lot of human, material and financial resources are required.
In comparison, the popularity of mobile Internet and short video platforms has reduced the cost of live broadcasts to a very low level: you only need to register an account, have video resources, and a computer with live broadcast software installed to complete live broadcasts without technical thresholds. , is also almost “zero cost”.
It is extremely difficult and costly for copyright owners to protect their rights. Kong Xiaoxi believes that selling electronic products and personal uploading of website users do not require any qualifications, which will further reduce the cost of piracy. In contrast, the cost of rights protection is expensive. In addition to the cumbersome procedures, the purchase and dissemination channels are very diversified, and it is very difficult to provide evidence for rights protection legally. “For example, I didn’t take a screenshot of the live broadcast at the time, so there was no way to protect my rights. , and the circle of friends is a private domain, and it is difficult for us to enter. As a copyright owner, it is difficult to supervise one by one.”
In the opinion of Yang Mie, a lawyer from Beijing Huajin Jinglian Intellectual Property Agency Co., Ltd., Internet infringement does have the characteristics of fast dissemination and strong concealment, and Article 24 of the Copyright Law stipulates some cases of fair use, “such as Personal study, research or appreciation, using the works published by others; introducing, commenting on a work or explaining a problem, properly citing other people’s published works in the work, etc. belong to the category of fair use. Some proofs themselves have certain difficulty.”
great danger
Difficulty attracting audience to the theater
Disadvantage in negotiating with foreign copyrights
Since the epidemic, performance practitioners have been looking for platforms to communicate with audiences outside the stage, and online performances have become a trend. How to protect the rights and interests of creators and enable online art to be produced and operated in a healthy and sustainable manner is a topic that colleagues around the world are exploring.
Li Congzhou, President of Aozhewei Culture, believes that the healthy and high-quality development of cloud performance is mainly based on copyright protection and services, “If this is not done well and users’ willingness to pay is not increased, copyright content producers will not receive corresponding economic returns. And respect, where did the bullets for us to develop cloud performances come from?”
“From our observations, people are still not used to paying for online content and cultural products.” Kong Xiaoxi said that it is difficult for many viewers to spend money to watch musicals online, “for example, they are willing to spend 100 yuan offline. It’s too much to spend 20 yuan online to watch a show. This is consumption habits.” This is also what makes practitioners particularly tangled. Compared with Cui Jian’s online concert, which has more than 45 million views and 100 million points Like, concerts, musicals, dance dramas and other elegant arts are quite niche. Compared with the huge public influence of “Cui Jian people” that can be converted into commercial value, these “niche” arts must first think about how to survive. In 2020, when the content was watched for free in the first period of the new live production online, the maximum single-piece playback volume was between 600,000 and 1 million, but the proportion of audience who could actually enter the theater was very small. It actually translates into the number of people watching in theaters, and the conversion rate is very limited.”
Rampant pirated content will undoubtedly consume more audiences’ enthusiasm for watching performances. “If everyone can see free content anytime, anywhere, it will gradually exhaust the payment habits that the audience has developed before, and forget the sense of ritual when entering the theater. , the performance market and cultural industry lose the habit of paying and lose the audience, which is the real dead end.” Kong Xiaoxi said worriedly.
Zhang Xiaoding, general manager of Shanghai Grand Theater, also believes that online piracy will have a great impact on future offline performances. “Because of the current online piracy, its purpose is not to introduce these performances offline in the future, but to bring a wave of traffic first for the account’s account’s ‘attracting fans’ and commercial realization. But this kind of traffic, In fact, it hurts more physical performance organizations. When performing offline performances in the future, audiences will have very low expectations for this performance. If there is no threshold for online piracy and flooding, audiences can watch online at zero cost. If it is a performance, then it will be more and more difficult for us to attract the audience to the theater again.”
In Zhang Xiaoding’s view, although copyright awareness is only the behavior of individual institutions, it will spread to the entire Chinese performing arts industry. Property rights create a sense of mistrust that can put us at a comparative disadvantage.”
response
The copyright owner and the platform parties cooperate with each other
Cultivate audience willingness to pay
Although the relevant laws of our country have stepped up the crackdown on infringements – if the amount of illegal gains is huge or there are other particularly serious circumstances, the penalty shall be fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than 10 years, and a fine. However, in the face of the momentum of curbing piracy and piracy still rampant, all parties obviously still have a lot of work to do, so that those who create value can get due incentives and the performance market will form a virtuous circle.
Lawyer Yang Mi suggested that copyright owners should take active actions to complain to the platform and assert their rights. In addition, “When the original broadcast or authorized broadcast, the copyright owner should also be indicated, so that it is more clear. It will be more beneficial to protect the rights in the future.”
Not long ago, after the Kunqu Opera “Six Records of a Floating Life” produced by the Shanghai Grand Theater was broadcast on station B, it was found that the UP master’s stolen recording was uploaded. The Shanghai Grand Theater communicated with the platform in time and stopped it through various means. This approach is often more timely and effective. Zhang Xiaoding, general manager of Shanghai Grand Theater, believes that in order to protect the copyright of online performances and create a healthy and healthy development, it requires the joint efforts of the copyright owners and the platform parties to reach a consensus on copyright awareness, “The cost of piracy is too low, if The platform side also sits and does nothing, which will contribute to this trend. If we are the copyright owner or broadcaster to do this, our strength is still limited. What we need is the joint efforts of us and the platform side. On the other hand, once a situation of piracy and recording is found, it will be appealed to the law, or the platform will deal with it immediately. Only in this way can the trend of piracy be curbed in a timely and effective manner.”
In addition, the formation of a business model for online performance content requires a process of accumulation over time. From content production to output to promotion, there must be a complete set of thematic planning and marketing plans. “It doesn’t mean that offline content is taken casually, and once it is put on the online platform, it is assumed that it must have an audience.” Zhang Xiaoding believes that at the current stage, online broadcasting is only temporarily regarded as the popularization and promotion of art. process. “In this process, on the one hand, it attracts more young audiences online; on the other hand, it continuously promotes the content of our offline performances, and at the same time, it is also the work of cultivating the market for our offline performances. But the ultimate goal , I still hope that everyone can come to the scene to watch the performance.” Tian Wanting
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责编：张晓荣 ]