However, at the same time, a contract from China Literature Group in September last year quickly caused controversy online after this personnel change. Topics such as "China Literature Group's new contract is accused of being domineering" and "Major changes to China Literature Au

However, at the same time, a contract from China Literature Group in September last year quickly caused controversy online after this personnel change. Topics such as "China Literature Group's new contract is accused of being domineering" and "Major changes to China Literature Author's contract" have been hot searches on Weibo for several consecutive days. Although China Literature Group has responded, saying that the contract was launched in September 2019, not as rumored by the outside world as a new contract launched on April 28, 2020, that is, it was not formulated by the new team. However, in the eyes of many authors, there have been signs of shock in the online literature circle. The so-called new contract is just "the last straw that broke the camel's back."

article｜Chen Lu

Because school has not started for a long time, in March, Jiachen, who was bored at home, wrote an online article on Hongxiu Tianxiang. Shortly after the serialization, the writer consultation platform on the site sent a message informing her that she could register as the signed author of the website by following the steps. She looked at it and found that one of the basic requirements was that the author's serial number of words must reach 50,000, while she only wrote less than 20,000 words. Jiachen thought this was a mass message, so he ignored it. However, a few days later, she found a more formal email in her email, telling her again that she could apply to become the website contract author.

"It is better to say that the threshold for this platform is particularly low than saying that I am very awesome." Jiachen said self-deprecatingly. The only large domestic female-oriented works platforms are Jinjiang Literature City and Hongxiu Tianxiang. When they first conducted research, Jiachen heard that Jinjiang’s authors were treated better, but because he “feels that Jinjiang focuses on danmei and romance”, Jiachen, who wanted to create serious novels, chose Hongxiu Tianxiang. “After all, it is also a big platform, so there shouldn’t be a big problem.” Hongxiu Tianxiang belongs to China Literature Group, and China Literature Group holds 50% of the shares in China Literature City.

"Romantic is a Supplement" Stills

After completing the registration online, Jiachen soon received a contract from the editor, "I looked at it myself, and then I also looked at it with my classmates. After reading it, my classmates felt that there were some overbearing terms, but I felt that I didn't expect to make money on this, I just wrote it happily." The contract signed by Jiachen in April was an old contract, not a new contract circulating online. , but the old contract has clearly stipulated that Hongxiu Tianxiang, who is Party A, will have the authorization of the electronic copyright, audio adaptation rights, the right to publish and distribute paper books in Simplified and Traditional Chinese, and other rights of this work. This other rights read, "Party A is allowed to use it on his own or transfer the above rights, commercial promotion and sales, and sign relevant agreements."

"So the issue of copyright transfer that is discussed most frequently now has been around for a long time, but the new contract is more exposed and it was said better." Jiachen said, "When signing the contract, it feels like selling his children." After the dispute over the new contract of Yuewen broke out, She suddenly felt something was wrong and immediately deleted another essay that was serialized on Hongxiu Tianxiang but had not signed a contract. She decided to stock up on the forefront and not publish it. "Because although (I am now) this contract is for a book, if you have a new book on the way or within one year after the completion of this book, you have to give them priority. They don't want it, so you can find a next home."

Lan Yunshu is now the contracted author of Jinjiang Literature City, but her online literature career began with Qidian Chinese Network (referred to as "Qidian"). Recalling the experience of serializing "The Moon of the Tang Dynasty" at Qidian, Lan Yunshu still sighed with difficulty, "I am a proletariat, and I support a middle class.” In 2011, she struggled in her doctoral thesis. In order to escape reality, she began to serialize a novel with historical themes on Qidian Chinese. "When facing a particularly terrifying paper, she would have infinite passion for writing online articles. "

didn't think too much about it. Lan Yunshu signed the contract that she regretted so much later, and authorized all copyrights to Qidian Chinese. "At that time, most people basically had no idea of ​​copyright, so I signed a formal contract directly. In 2013, Qidian sold the film and television copyrights to a person without any use. One day, the man suddenly came to me and said that the film and television copyright of my book was in his place. He had found the film and television company and was about to start the filming. If I want to participate in this project, I have to sign an exclusive agent contract with him. "

participated in the project, Lan Yunshu realized that there was a huge price difference in . "Qidian sold the film and television copyright of "The Mingyue of the Tang Dynasty" for 450,000 yuan, and distributed me 180,000 yuan, and about 160,000 yuan after tax deduction. But the film and television company bought it from this person and spent 13 million. And he got the full copyright of film and television, including movies, animations, etc., so I missed a very good opportunity. Xuanji Technology, an animation company that has produced "The Mingyue in Qin", found me and wanted to make the cartoon of "The Mingyue in Tang Dynasty" with sincerity, but the full copyright of the film and television is in the hands of others, so I can't introduce him to that person. In this case, I feel too unbalanced, so I would rather not do it. "

" But I am not an isolated case. Anyway, I know that there are many authors who suffer losses like me. Everyone has paid tuition fees for this matter, but my tuition fees are still relatively expensive. "Lan Yunshu said, "To be honest, the price was not high when selling one for hundreds of thousands of yuan, but it was not very outrageous, but it was just a medium-low price. However, if I go to negotiate this price, first, I will definitely not be willing to sell it for 8 years, usually for 5 years; second, I will not sell the copyright to a natural person, and the other party is not even a film and television company, and Qidian has no restrictions on the buyer. But now, I heard that it is much more standardized than before. "

"It's OK, it's love" stills

In fact, in the era of wild growth in the online literature circle, many "weird" contracts were issued. For example, Teng Ping, who debuted in the "Nine Gong Dance" series in early 2000, was loved by readers. Later, because she was not satisfied with the contract of Hua Yu on the contract website Hua Yu, she terminated the contract and ran away. However, Hua Yu gave the title of "restricted pseudonym" in the contract terms. Others used the pseudonym "Tengping" to publish the later "Purple Dance" series of books.

In addition, the "Longling Mysterious Cave", which has been on the hot search recently, was adapted from the online literary IP "Ghost Blows the Light". Recently, the original author Tianxia Bachang was sentenced to infringe the "Ghost Blows the Light" logo and wanted to compensate Xuanting Company (i.e. Qidian Chinese). Countless commanders who were sentenced to infringement were very surprised. This is because During the period when the "Ghost Blows Out the Light" was serialized on Qidian Chinese website, the contract signed stipulates that during the validity period of this agreement and after the implementation of this agreement, Tianxia Bachang shall not use his real name, pseudonym or any of the works that are the same or similar to the name of this work or as the title of the main chapters of the work.

However, the "Golden Captain" created by him after leaving Qidian Chinese website was used extensively in "Ghost Blows Out the Light" without the permission of Xuanting Company. The original expression elements such as the name of the character, the image of the character, the relationship between the character, the relationship between the tomb robbery, and the taboo rules that must be followed by tomb robbery violated the copyright of the work "Ghost Blows Out the Light" owned by Qidian Chinese. This lawsuit against the original author's infringement occurred.

was a loss, even though Qidian Chinese has now transferred from Shanda Literature to the China Literature Group, when Lan Yunshu re-planned to write online articles in 2018, he did not consider Qidian again. But she found that almost all platforms are similar and would require the author to authorize the full copyright to the platform. "Slightly better platforms such as iQiyi and Mars novels require full copyright. Some small websites can only have electronic copyrights, and other rights are given to you, but these platforms are too small and have no traffic."

In the end, Lan Shuyun chose Jinjiang Literature City. "Compared with Qidian, the biggest feature of Jinjiang is that you only buy out the fruits of your labor for a few years. For example, within five years, all the novels you write must be published on Jinjiang and are exclusively represented by it. However, after the contract period ends, the fruits of labor still belong to you, and the copyright of the novel can still be returned to you. However, after the Tang Dynasty Mingyue is serialized on Qidian, the copyright belongs to Qidian. My life has nothing to do with it. Maybe if Qidian sells it next time, I will give me some redemption."

and, Lan Shuyun added, "When Jinjiang sells copyright, I signed a three-party contract, which means that when he signed a contract with the film and television company, I participated. And not Like Qidian, I sold it directly and then transferred the money to my account. I can't see the contract, nor do I know who bought it. When negotiating the price, I can also tell Jinjiang that I won't sell it if I am less than a few million, and I won't sell it for a few years. But it also has a countermeasure. If you follow its ideas, you will get more dividends. If you stick to your own requirements, the dividend ratio will be lower. "

Lan Shuyun believes that the reason why the new contract circulating online this time has caused such a great controversy is that one of the main reasons for is that the relationship between the author and the website is defined as "hiring". "What is the problem involved in the employment system? That is, the website hired me to write novels, which is a relationship of commissioned creation. The author was deprived of the personal rights of the copyright. The personal rights of the copyright refer to the right to publish, the right to sign, the right to modify, and the right to protect the completeness of the work. It is the most basic right of the author. Now they explain this is a misunderstanding, not the original intention, so they have to wait for explanation. The top author of the hiding Chinese website, Wandering Toad, has been in the industry for more than ten years. In his opinion, "What everyone is making noise about is not entirely a problem with the new contract. In the past decade of online literature development, the contract has been increased layer by layer. Now it can be said that it is the last straw that falls on the camel. " He recalled that at first the platform only had two years of electronic copyright, and later the simplified traditional Chinese book publishing and distribution rights were required, and then gradually all bought out in the end, "Everyone could only be forced to accept it. Because at the beginning, people didn’t make much money, some people were willing to accept it, and some people thought I could sell better, so they stopped following the path of online writers and switched to physical publishing or jumping to other websites. "

In the early years, due to contract issues, the wandering toad jumped to Zongheng Chinese. Later, Tencent acquired Shanda Literature and established China Literature Group, the contract became relatively loose. Some famous authors can also bargain with the platform and open some contracts that are more beneficial to them alone. He returned to the starting point, "So many authors are moving in various ways on several websites. "

In his opinion, another major reason for this controversy is free reading. " This has a great impact on the income of online writers, and many authors' income may drop from tens of thousands of yuan a month to hundreds or even dozens of yuan. Lianshang Literature is the first online literature platform to do free reading. They have had many authors before. " It is reported that generally speaking, the sharing mode between China Literature and the author is basically "subscribe + full attendance + diligent writing + prop share + monthly ticket reward". For most authors below the waist, the main income depends on paid share and full attendance award. Lan Shuyun told this magazine that the 600 yuan full attendance award that is constantly updated 30 days a month can be said to be the main source of income for many small authors of Qidian.

The Wandering Toad further explained to this magazine, "Readers will not pay, and the website hopes to pay with advertising fees. But there is one biggest problem with advertising, and no one knows how much advertising fees the platform has received. Our original subscription was displayed directly in the background, and everyone can see each subscriber for readers. Moreover, even if the platform gives all the advertising revenue to the authors, the income for many top authors is still reduced."For example, platinum writer Tang Jiasan Shao, I Eat Tomatoes, etc., have been ranked among the top of the "Chinese Online Writers Rich List" with tens of millions of yuan in the year.

However, the wandering toad also said that according to , the so-called free model today should be a misunderstanding. Unlike the previous failed advertising model, it belongs to the "new media model" and hopes to rely on the traffic of major new media platforms for cost sharing. , but more specific content still needs to wait for the official answer, "The ideal situation is of course to retain the traditional subscription model, and then supplement it with the emerging model of new media. "And the platform, the official of China Literature has responded to the online debate immediately, saying that the contract was launched in September 2019, not as rumored by the outside world, it was not formulated by the new team, that is, it was not formulated by the new team. The "free reading" from the outside world is impossible and unrealistic. On May 6, China Literature Group will hold a writer's talks tomorrow. Cheng Wu, Hou Xiaonan and other new management teams of China Literature, who have just joined the company, will participate, and promise to communicate extensively with the writers and make corresponding changes to the unreasonable terms.

(Jiachen in the article is a pseudonym. This article also thanks to the intern Zhao Yining for his help.)

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