"The Richest Man in Xihong City" suspected of plagiarizing the script of a web drama? Lawyer responded that the copyright of a foreign film has been purchased

On August 8, a screenwriter named "Wang Hanyu" published an article on WeChat official account titled "<The Richest Man in Xihong City> plagiarized my 2015 work and became the richest man. Which is more important, the dream or the money?", claiming that the movie "The Richest Man in Xihong City" plagiarized his online drama script "The Heirs". On August 9, "The Richest Man in Xihong City" issued a lawyer's statement denying plagiarism, saying that "The Richest Man in Xihong City" (including the script) was independently adapted and created by the screenwriter and the main creative team of the film based on legal and exclusive authorization. The lawyer in charge of the matter, Wang Jun, said that "we support resolving all legitimate rights protection and 'plagiarism' within the legal framework."

Screenwriter Wang Hanyu said in the article, "The work that "The Richest Man in Xihong City" plagiarized from me is called "The Inheritors". In July 2015, I was verbally commissioned by a friend to create a web drama for him. My friend told me his idea orally. A low-level worker in the film and television industry unexpectedly received a fortune from a 'relative' and was required to spend a small amount of wealth within a limited time and not increase any personal property before inheriting another larger fortune."

The screenwriter said, "The Richest Man in Xihong City claims that it has purchased the copyright of Brewster's Millions and is a remake of it. First of all, I have not seen this movie, nor the novel it was adapted from, Brewster's Millions. So, I watched the movie carefully, and then I understood the meaning of the plan made by the creators of The Richest Man in Xihong City.

The backgrounds of the three stories are indeed similar, so the premise of "suddenly getting rich and then inheriting a bigger legacy" is an idea that has been around since 1905, but my story has nothing in common with the original novel or Brewster's Millions. The protagonist of my story only thought of using the money to do something meaningful at the end, and the dream was to make a movie. A lot of the Chinese ways of spending money were set by me based on China's national conditions, and they are all original. "

Screenwriter Wang Hanyu believes that "The cleverness of the plagiarism of "The Richest Man in Xihong City" lies in that it plagiarized two films. One is "Brewster's Millions", which it has purchased the copyright for, and the other is my "The Heirs". Now it is using the copyrighted film to cover up the fact that it plagiarized my work."

On August 9, "The Richest Man in Xihong City" launched a counterattack on this matter: Beijing Taoan Law Firm was commissioned to issue a lawyer's statement regarding the false accusations against the movie "The Richest Man in Xihong City" in order to clarify the relevant facts and safeguard the legitimate interests of the producer and main creative team of the movie "The Richest Man in Xihong City".

The lawyer's statement stated: After accepting the commission, this lawyer reviewed the relevant legal documents of the movie "The Richest Man in Xihong City" provided by the client in accordance with the law, and compared the released version of the movie "The Richest Man in Xihong City", the existing version of the movie "Brewster's Millions" produced by Universal Pictures in 1985, and the script outline of "The Heirs" entrusted by the author to Mr. Yu Fei on August 7 to forward to the client. After a detailed comparison of the story, structure, character setting, main plot, content arrangement and other dramatic functions of the three works, the following conclusions were drawn.

The movie "The Richest Man in Xihong City" (including the script) is authorized by Universal Pictures and adapted and filmed based on the 1985 film "Brewster's Millions" produced by Universal Pictures; the creation of the movie "The Richest Man in Xihong City" does not plagiarize or plagiarize the work "The Successor". "The Richest Man in Xihong City" (including the script) does not constitute copyright infringement of the script outline of "The Successor". The similar contents claimed in the infringing articles all have legal adaptation sources or do not constitute substantial similarity in terms of specific expression.

Among the three works "The Richest Man in West Hong City", "Brewster's Millions" and "The Heirs", the movie "Brewster's Millions" released in 1985 is the "prior expression", and the movie "The Richest Man in West Hong City" obtained the legal adaptation rights of the movie "Brewster's Millions" through exclusive authorization.

After cross-comparison, the infringing article alleged that "The Richest Man in Xihong City" has similar content to "The Heirs" in terms of character settings (including the male protagonist, the second male protagonist, two competing fund managers, a female accountant, relatives with property but no other heirs, etc.), main plot (including the overall rules of inheritance, etc.), and plot segments (including playing football for dreams, hiring an entire security team, renting luxury cars, making money from stocks, and getting returns on investment projects, accidentally transferring back the start-up capital, the amount of money spent was insufficient due to people's calculations, realizing dreams, arranging undercover agents, etc.). All of these contents are from "Brewster's Millions", which the client has obtained legal adaptation authorization from Universal Pictures and has been published first. The client has a clear authorization basis and legal basis for using the above content in the creation of "The Richest Man in Xihong City" and does not infringe on the author's rights.