Empresses in the Palace producer reportedly sues retired group for copyright infringement

The producer of Chinese drama Empresses in the Palace has reportedly sued a group of Chinese citizens for copyright infringement after they remade the TV series on their own.

This comes as 16 retired Shanghainese women invested in reproducing the Chinese drama series in Hengdian World Studios, with each paying RMB$4,000, according to Channel C.

The producer of the original drama series Cao Ping said she has decided to sue related parties, according to the report. Meanwhile, the production company's legal team has been preparing materials for relevant platforms to remove the allegedly infringing content. 

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Cao Ping for a statement. 

The incident has drawn mixed reactions with some netizens commenting that the reproduction of the film has somehow infringed the copyright of the original film, while some said the retired group just wished to entertain themselves, a check by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE saw on Weibo.

Earlier in June this year, producers of the popular Chinese historical drama, Story of Yanxi Palace, have been fined about SG$12k for copyright infringement. According to Sina Entertainment, iQIYI, Dongyang Huanyu Film and Television Culture, and Shanghai Baoyue Film and Television Investment, were sued by plaintiff Fan Mou for allegedly using his published works in the title sequence of Yanxi for all 70 episodes as well as six additional episodes without his consent.

According to screenshots of the legal document on Sina Entertainment, iQIYI explained that it has the rights to Story of Yanxi Palace and has never been accused of copyright infringement. The company argued that it also has the rights to distribute Story of Yanxi Palace on its platform. On the topic of copyright infringement, iQIYI said in the screenshot that there was previously no reason for iQIYI to have believed that such an issue existed. Nonetheless, as soon as iQIYI received the lawsuit, it immediately made changes to the series content, including the title sequence. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to iQIYI for a statement. 

(Photo courtesy: Letv official YouTube channel)

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