The box office of "The Wandering Earth" has exceeded 1 billion, and all efforts are devoted to blocking the spread of piracy

With labels such as "New Year's Day", "Chinese science fiction film", and "Liu Cixin", the movie "The Wandering Earth" was released on the first day of the Lunar New Year and achieved great success in both word of mouth and box office. Some people call it a milestone work of Chinese science fiction films. As of the afternoon of the 8th, the box office has exceeded 1 billion and received a high score of 9.2.

However, Beijing Youth Daily reporters found that while The Wandering Earth attracted audiences, it also attracted malicious pirates. Some sellers sold pirated copies of The Wandering Earth on a second-hand platform, claiming that they were complete high-definition resources, with prices as low as 1 yuan. Some even sold a package of several popular Lunar New Year films for only 2 yuan.

In this regard, the producers of the movie "The Wandering Earth" said that they have been busy fighting piracy during the Spring Festival. Although they have been prepared, they still failed to stop the momentum of piracy. They have joined forces with more other practitioners to discuss countermeasures to fight piracy. In addition, as early as February 2, the National Copyright Administration issued a copyright protection warning for eight New Year films including "The Wandering Earth", requiring network service providers, e-commerce websites and application stores to speed up the processing of infringing content and links.

Encountering piracy

The seller claims that the HD version

The second-hand platform is only 1 yuan

On February 5, "The Wandering Earth" was released. Some netizens who had seen the film were delighted and recommended it to their friends.

On the morning of February 8, a Beijing Youth Daily reporter found that on the fourth day of its release, many sellers online were already selling resources of The Wandering Earth, claiming that it was a "high-definition complete version" and selling for as low as 1 yuan.

A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily searched for "The Wandering Earth" on a second-hand platform and found that the price of the film resource ranged from 1 yuan to 5 yuan. A seller who sold it for 4 yuan said that the film resource was the latest on the entire network, and it could be played online in 1080P high-definition without lag. He also said that after the photo was taken, the link would be sent directly, and the buyer could watch it online or download it. After the reporter took the photo, the seller sent a video playback website, which included the TS advance version, TC clear version, and HD1280 high-definition Mandarin Chinese subtitles version of "The Wandering Earth". The reporter from Beijing Youth Daily tried to click on the "High-definition Mandarin Chinese Subtitles Version" of "The Wandering Earth". The film was 2 hours long and the picture quality was clear, but promotional ads for a gambling website occasionally appeared on the screen during playback.

The seller also said that the website that plays the film was built by himself, and the source of the film is reliable, but the website may be blocked, and the link sent to the buyer will be invalid after being blocked. However, if you spend 198 yuan to become his agent, you can get unlimited goods and permanently obtain the film resources on his website regardless of whether the website is blocked. When the reporter asked about the source of the film, the seller said, "Don't worry about it."

Beijing Youth Daily reporters noticed that the gambling website embedded in these pirated film resources is the same one, and it frequently moves on the screen when watching the film, affecting the viewing experience.

Voice of the film crew

No time to celebrate after box office hit 1 billion

All efforts are focused on blocking piracy

On the afternoon of February 8, a Beijing Youth Daily reporter contacted the official Weibo account of the movie "The Wandering Earth". Regarding the seller's online sale of high-definition pirated copies of "The Wandering Earth", the other party said that they would deal with it as soon as possible.

On the afternoon of the 8th, the box office of "The Wandering Earth" exceeded 1 billion, and the results were gratifying. Gong Geer, the producer of "The Wandering Earth", told the Beijing Youth Daily reporter: "In recent days, the staff of "The Wandering Earth" has no time to celebrate the rise in box office, but has spent almost all of their energy on complaints and blocking piracy."

It is not new that there are pirated copies of movies during the Spring Festival, but this year the piracy is quite fierce. Several new movies have been pirated, especially the most popular movie "The Wandering Earth". Gong Geer revealed that they received information about piracy early in the morning on the second day of the Chinese New Year. Although they had prepared before, they still failed to stop the piracy. "That night, the pirated copies had spread through the Internet."

Gong Geer said that in order to prevent piracy, they controlled the source, encrypted the production layer by layer, and reduced all unnecessary material contact. After the release, three anti-piracy teams were arranged to guard day and night. "Every day on Weibo, Zhihu, Douban, WeChat and other social media, there are private messages sent to us by the audience, all of which are pirated links, helping us to combat piracy. This is what I least expected, and I am very moved."

Gong Geer said helplessly: "Although we have taken many preventive measures, the phenomenon of sneak shots in theaters is a stubborn problem that hurts film practitioners and also affects the audience's experience." According to the conservative estimate of the film company, the average number of views of a single link in the past two days ranged from 20,000 to 100,000, and some were even higher. "We estimate that the number of online pirated views of all Spring Festival films so far has exceeded 20 million. This is very conservative because peer-to-peer downloads cannot be counted."

Gong Geer told the Beijing Youth Daily that they are working with more practitioners to discuss countermeasures. At the same time, he said: "As a film practitioner, I call on the audience to support genuine films. We also hope to dedicate the best audio-visual enjoyment to the audience and win the trust of the audience with the quality of the film."

Official response

Copyright Office issues protection warning

8 Lunar New Year films are included

After discovering the piracy, the filmmakers of The Wandering Earth have reported it to the relevant departments. Gong Geer said: "The National Film Administration and the National Copyright Administration are jointly taking measures to crack down on piracy, especially the piracy of secretly filmed movies in theaters. Criminal measures will be taken to crack down on serious infringers and pirates. With the involvement of relevant regulatory and law enforcement units, the crackdown will be more and more severe, and this trend will definitely be curbed."

On the afternoon of February 8, a Beijing Youth Daily reporter also reported online to the National Copyright Administration about the Lunar New Year films being pirated and infringed upon by online sellers.

In fact, as early as February 2, the National Copyright Administration released the "First Batch of Copyright Protection Warning List of Key Works in 2019", which included eight Lunar New Year films released on the first day of the Lunar New Year, including "The Wandering Earth", "Crazy Alien", "The New King of Comedy", and "Peppa Pig Celebrates the New Year".

When the National Copyright Administration released the Copyright Protection Warning List, it stated that relevant Internet service providers should take the following protective measures for key cinema films on the Copyright Protection Warning List: Internet service providers that directly provide content shall not provide works on the Copyright Protection Warning List during the film's screening period; Internet service providers that provide storage space should prohibit users from uploading works on the Copyright Protection Warning List; Internet service providers, e-commerce websites and application stores that provide search links should speed up the processing of notices from rights holders of works on the Copyright Protection Warning List regarding the deletion of infringing content or the disconnection of infringing links.

At the same time, the National Copyright Administration requires that local copyright administrative law enforcement and supervision departments should issue copyright warnings to major network service providers in their regions and strengthen copyright monitoring and supervision. Those who illegally disseminate copyright protection warning key works through information networks without authorization should be investigated and dealt with strictly and quickly in accordance with the law.