![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
19 Feb 2006 09:06 pmA while ago, a Chinese movie called "Wu Ji" came out. Apparently its reception at the cinemas was lukewarm.
A net-addict named Hu Ge cut out several scenes from the movie and made it into a parody skit, its name abbreviated to "A bun" ("A series of murders caused by a bun"). It became extremely popular on download sites.
And that's when the problem started.
The director became enraged, planning to sue him...what for is completely beyond me.
As far as I can remember, according to international copyright law, using a material for parody purposes is not a breach of copyright. Beside this fact, the parody was never intended to or ended up being used for commercial purposes.
This caused a lot of argument on Chinese BBS sites, one representative viewpoint is, "No one has the right to make a joke out of someone else's effort."
Unfortunately, that's the entire point of satire and parody. It hurts, but it's legal.
Though the definition of "legal" is rather vague in China.
If one has the right to produce crap that would just be added pollution to the intellect (such as, crappy fanfics for one thing) then another has the right to ridicule it, as it deserves.
Not that I've actually seen "Wu Ji". But if it wasn't crap to start off with, then why are you so scared that it would be defamed? Don't audiences have eyes for themselves? If it is a masterpiece, it will rise over unfounded criticism.
A net-addict named Hu Ge cut out several scenes from the movie and made it into a parody skit, its name abbreviated to "A bun" ("A series of murders caused by a bun"). It became extremely popular on download sites.
And that's when the problem started.
The director became enraged, planning to sue him...what for is completely beyond me.
As far as I can remember, according to international copyright law, using a material for parody purposes is not a breach of copyright. Beside this fact, the parody was never intended to or ended up being used for commercial purposes.
This caused a lot of argument on Chinese BBS sites, one representative viewpoint is, "No one has the right to make a joke out of someone else's effort."
Unfortunately, that's the entire point of satire and parody. It hurts, but it's legal.
Though the definition of "legal" is rather vague in China.
If one has the right to produce crap that would just be added pollution to the intellect (such as, crappy fanfics for one thing) then another has the right to ridicule it, as it deserves.
Not that I've actually seen "Wu Ji". But if it wasn't crap to start off with, then why are you so scared that it would be defamed? Don't audiences have eyes for themselves? If it is a masterpiece, it will rise over unfounded criticism.
