Do you want to build Disney's attorneys a vacation home?

[littleblackegg]

So, I listened to this on NPR this am. While the lyrics are in Mandarin, the music is pretty obviously plagiarized. While I thought it was pretty catchy, the artist in me just says, "No, no no" to taking a musical idea or sampling without permission. I suspect Beijing's creative team will be scrapping this one.

http://www.npr.org/2015/08/05/42959...-lawsuit-china-totally-copied-frozen-kid-says

 

[Tinkerdreams]

Oh yeah, they're gonna come down on them!

 

[littleblackegg]

Too bad they didn't get the licensing for the original song. It would have been perfect for a Winter Olympics opening ceremony, don't you think?

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Gee... Disney.sue?...where?...in China?

The fact that China did not get permission shows they don't care and will use any song they want....

Disney would not have a chance in a Chinese court.

Disney cannot do a thing to stop them

AKK

 

[littleblackegg]

Gee... Disney.sue?...where?...in China?

The fact that China did not get permission shows they don't care and will use any song they want....

Disney would not have a chance in a Chinese court.

Disney cannot do a thing to stop them

AKK

I think they will have some legal ground since the IOC is an internationally governed body, and all participating nations and cities must agree to huge, binding contracts signed years in advance. I do wonder how these big multinational corporations work these things out in these circumstances.

 

[Josh Hendy]

I imagine that if the Chinese admit any infringement on the original song's authors, they will give them shared songwriting credit and a percentage of any royalties. And eventually they will declare that there were essentially zero royalties due after expenses incurred by the Chinese equivalent of ASCAP or whatever. Everyone saves face and no money changes hands. Probably Disney's lawyers are on staff or on retainer anyways

I should point out that culturally speaking, Chinese do not share the Western obsession or hangup with copyright and author's or performer's royalties. I saw an amateur teenaged musical presentation in the USA this summer and every performance was preceded by a serious-sounding announcement: "FEDERAL LAW PROHIBITS THE USE OF ANY VIDEO OR AUDIO RECORDING DEVICE AT THIS PERFORMANCE!" Like the G-men or federal prosecutors are going to swing into action if anyone holds up their phone to record their kid's solo! Maybe they would if it was a Disney work being performed. Whereas the last time I saw a live, professional show in China, practically everyone in the audience was snapping away and shooting videos of the entire performance.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

China has been stealing
real and intellicual properties for years.....they don't care about international agreements.

Thiercourt handle the cases and you rarely if ever win as the dictatorship goverments tell the courts what the results will be.

Companies are after years of being stolen from are chosing not to do business in China.

Example China and the western Europe group biulding the new high speed train agreed to biuld the trains in China with their slave like labor. With their rigths protected.

Funny a few years afterwould the China put on the Market a new Train looking just like the European train.

They are TRYING stop the Chinese with no success.

In the song case China doesn't give them permission to use the song, China will very likely restrict Disney partisapation in the Shanghia park.

AKK

 

[littleblackegg]

It is, of course, fascinating. I will be interested to see how it is managed. The contract to hold the Beijing Winter Olympics is only partially with the Chinese government. It is mostly with a huge conglomerate of Beijing businesses (just like it is in any city). I think the Chinese will end up just like the Russian government ended up in Sochi. They wanted to use their own laws and customs to handle the controversy (in Sochi it was the treatment of gay athletes), but they found the international community wasn't going to support them. I think the same will be likely with China's plagiarism. They may fall initially fall on their own practices, but when the whole international juggernaut (for example, ABC may black out any Disney-plagiarized music) they will eventually work it out. Russia almost lost Sochi over the gay athlete situation, but were willing to work it out because they needed the revenue. I think Beijing will have many situations like this. It will be fascinating to see what the negotiate and what the won't.

 

[Josh Hendy]

With the deepening financial problems in Brazil and China, not to mention their toxic political situations, the authorship of the theme song may be the least of anyone's problems.

But don't worry ... the media will mostly focus on the controversy over the theme song, the quality or fakeness of the opening ceremonies spectacular, and whether Caitlyn Jenner is treated with enough respect and reverence when she attends the games ...

 

[littleblackegg]

Indeed. While I suspect Brazil to have less political spats and more financial craziness, the speed of China's economic changes (going from a communist agrarian economy to a bizarrely wealthy international superpower in 6 weeks) should show deep cracks in the superstructure of the former PRC. It waits to be revealed.

 

[Odelay]

With the deepening financial problems in Brazil and China, not to mention their toxic political situations, the authorship of the theme song may be the least of anyone's problems.

But don't worry ... the media will mostly focus on the controversy over the theme song, the quality or fakeness of the opening ceremonies spectacular, and whether Caitlyn Jenner is treated with enough respect and reverence when she attends the games ...

Nice dig at a transgendered Olympian. Well done.

 

[Josh Hendy]

Nice dig at a transgendered Olympian. Well done.

Thank you for illustrating my point.

 

[dinolounger]

China has been stealing real and intellicual properties for years.....they don't care about international agreements.

AKK

And to provide an example of just how blatant their theft is: I work for multinational and regularly present at conferences in many parts of the world. Whenever I do sessions in Asia, I know in advance that like clockwork the Chinese attendees will arrive early to grab seats in the front two rows or so of the room. Why? So they have a clear, unobstructed view for their their phones and tablets, which they use the moment the presentation starts to begin taking photos of every single copyrighted slide I am presenting.

 

[littleblackegg]

Me too. I try not to bring too much IP with me that is super proprietary. What I always find fascinating is that this is a cultural phenomenon. They just don't see IP, patents, copyrights and like the way the Western world sees them. That's why the theft happens so openly. It isn't seen as anything that causes harm. There have been several books and papers written about this as China's efforts to develop their economy have included trade with foreign countries.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

And to provide an example of just how blatant their theft is: I work for multinational and regularly present at conferences in many parts of the world. Whenever I do sessions in Asia, I know in advance that like clockwork the Chinese attendees will arrive early to grab seats in the front two rows or so of the room. Why? So they have a clear, unobstructed view for their their phones and tablets, which they use the moment the presentation starts to begin taking photos of every single copyrighted slide I am presenting.

BINGO!

This is a perfect example and why comments like *we'll we have international laws and the Chinese need to follow them and Disney can sue* are silly!

Yest we keep buying Chinese rip offs just becuase they maybe cheaper.

We have to as a national wake up and start supporting US products ( which are almost always better quality and more often then you would think about the same prices.

The job you save may end up being your own.


AKK

 

[Midwinter]

This is non-issue. Disney will not try to bring up any claims of copyright violation for this song. It is strikingly similar, but it happens all the time in modern music and is just recently getting court cases in USA for major rip-offs (Blurred Lines - Marvin Gaye case), but I doubt we will see anything happen internationally - especially in China of all places.

As posted by others - China doesn't really see intellectual property the same way that most other countries do. The only way they will care is if it could hurt them economically and I don't think there will be any big backlash because the Olympics songs sounds similar to a Disney track.

 

[peg110]

BINGO!

This is a perfect example and why comments like *we'll we have international laws and the Chinese need to follow them and Disney can sue* are silly!

Yest we keep buying Chinese rip offs just becuase they maybe cheaper.

We have to as a national wake up and start supporting US products ( which are almost always better quality and more often then you would think about the same prices.

The job you save may end up being your own.


AKK

Sad part is, is that it may be cheaper, but rarely (but not always) is it better.

I try to buy as much U.S. as I can but it's difficult because much of it has been outsourced to China, Vietnam, India, Mexico, or wherever.

 

[StarWarsJez]

Just listened to both songs (as far as I can on youtube) and despite it being very lazy songwriting, I don't believe that Disney would win a copyright infringement case - even in the US.

Yes musically there are certainly similarities but the melody of the Chinese song is different ENOUGH for them to get away with it. Though the verse melody was similar the chorus was not. The bridge took parts from the Disney song but not all of it. It's nowhere near as close as the Sam Smith/Tom Petty songs were - and that's a good example of 'too close'

The backing music (unless it's a direct copy, which it isn't) is irrelevant. If you look at the amount of modern songs which have exactly the same chord progression and structure you'll be amazed. the Chinese guys have clearly used this as their template, but they've changed enough (including the instrumentation) for it to get through.

I'm not defending them as it's clearly lazy songwriting, but from a legal perspective - from what I've heard - they're in no danger.

 

[aprincessatlast]

Yes musically there are certainly similarities but the melody of the Chinese song is different ENOUGH for them to get away with it. Though the verse melody was similar the chorus was not. The bridge took parts from the Disney song but not all of it. It's nowhere near as close as the Sam Smith/Tom Petty songs were - and that's a good example of 'too close'

The backing music (unless it's a direct copy, which it isn't) is irrelevant. If you look at the amount of modern songs which have exactly the same chord progression and structure you'll be amazed. the Chinese guys have clearly used this as their template, but they've changed enough (including the instrumentation) for it to get through.

I'm not defending them as it's clearly lazy songwriting, but from a legal perspective - from what I've heard - they're in no danger.

I am with you. It is close but not close enough. Time will tell I guess.

I also would imagine Disney has had enough experience with building Shanghai Disney to know when to pick their battles. It will be interesting to see if this is a hill Disney wants to do battle on.

My question is how do people who do a parody get away with it. Weird Al is always ripping off songs and making fun of them with practically the same beats. I have never heard of him getting sued before.

 

[StarWarsJez]

My question is how do people who do a parody get away with it. Weird Al is always ripping off songs and making fun of them with practically the same beats. I have never heard of him getting sued before.

The reason is that parody is dealt with differently. in both the USA and UK you are able to parody something so long as it's clear that it is a parody (a good example of this was Wierd Al's 'Eat it' which was Michael Jackson's 'Beat it' but with new 'funny' lyrics)