原声播报93：《扫黑风暴》你也敢搬运？抖音火速下架被腾讯投诉视频

Douyin Removes User Clips After Backing Down From Copyright Showdown With Tencent Video
《扫黑风暴》你也敢搬运？抖音火速下架被腾讯投诉视频

【文中生词】

spring cleaning 大扫除

figure of speech 修辞手法

fuss 大惊小怪

video streaming 视频数据流

whopping 巨大的

【词汇延展】

authorship statement 作者声明

copyright claimant 版权索赔人

derivative work 演绎作品

exclusive right 专有权

【单词详解】

allege

v. 宣称

to state sth as a fact but without giving proof

关联词汇

asseverate 郑重声明

aver 断言

alleged 所谓的；声称的

allegation 说法；指控

例句

The claimants allege that manufacturers failed to warn doctors that their drugs should be used only in limited circumstances.

索赔人声称生产商没有警告医生他们生产的药品只能在特定的条件下使用。

Local Iraqi officials allege that farmers have looted the oil site.

伊拉克当地官员声称农民们掠夺了油井。

file

n. 把…归档

to put and keep documents

n. 提出

to present sth so that it can be officially recorded and dealt with

关联词汇

portfolio 文件夹；作品集

filing 文件归档；挫

file in 陆续编入

on file 存档

file a lawsuit 提起诉讼

例句

The file was labelled ‘Private.’

那档案已标明“保密”。

He rifled through his briefcase and extracted a file.

他在公文包内搜索一番，取出一份文件。

Today, I will actually be speaking about the Chinese version of TikTok, and that is of course another ByteDance app Douyin. The big news is that Douyin has been doing some serious spring cleaning.

It’s a bit late for that, as we’re already on the doorstep of autumn.

Urggh Josh, it’s called a figure of speech, I’m working with amateurs. And what I am actually talking about is the app taking down thousands of user-generated clips. That’s after these clips were suspected of violating copyrights to a TV crime drama streamed on a competitor platform —Tencent Video.

Okay so what’s going on?

Okay so all of this fuss is about a tv series called “Crime Crackdown.” The show is all about organized crime gangs getting cracked down by the Chinese police. But, it seems like this has also sparked some real-life drama between two Chinese tech giants. 

Tencent Video, a video streaming platform owned by – you guessed it – Tencent has exclusive rights for the online dissemination of “Crime Crackdown.” Now the company has alleged that Douyin has allowed users to upload content from “Crime Crackdown” without its consent.

Therefore, last week, Tencent Video said it filed a lawsuit against Douyin for copyright infringement and unfair competition. It also wants the short video app to do some serious paying up. Tencent video has demanded that Douyin pay it compensation of a whopping 100 million yuan or about $15 million for allowing widespread copyright infringement to take place on its platform.

But now Douyin has actually taken down all of these offending clips?

Yes that’s right, the app wiped more than 8,000 user-generated videos considered to violate the copyright of “Crime Crackdown.” Now, aside from that, Douyin has also released a statement in which it said it had a right to distribute such clips for promotional purposes under a contract with the co-producers of the show. Douyin asserted that it had actually signed a cooperation deal with a firm that co-produced “Crime Crackdown” with Tencent Video, under which Douyin users were encouraged to take part in promoting the drama by creating short videos related to the show. However, the statement was rather mysteriously then taken offline for some unknown reasons, and Douyin declined to further comment on the matter.

Alright, Nandini, I know you kind of missed the boat on the whole short video craze, and neither of us have watched this tv show – as riveting as it sounds – so why should we care about all of this?

Well, this isn’t about Douyin or the TV show itself. Instead, the story reflects on a bigger trend over copyright concerns in the film and tv industry. Indeed, entertainment production companies, industry associations and video streaming platforms have all vowed to step up their legal actions against short video platforms. That’s because many users have been producing content using clips adapted from movies and TV shows without getting approval from the copyright owners. This is something that has actually attracted attention from the National Copyright Administration. And indeed, just in April, the administration said that it would tighten its oversight of copyright infringements on short-video platforms including ordering them to improve their copyright protection mechanisms.