Bilibili Removes Friends’ Related Videos Following Alleged Copyright Infringement Chinese video-streaming platform Bilibili on Monday removed all videos related to the American television sitcom “Friends” after “Friends: The Reunion” ignited a copyright battle with Chinese video-streaming sites on copyright infringement over the weekend. Chinese video sites including iQiyi, Tencent Video, Youku and Bilibili have the full-season copyright for “Friends,” which is expected to launch in the second half of this year, according to a notice Bilibili sent to the Global Times on Monday. Read more Glob ..read more

Streaming platforms and production companies are reminding people that, while abridged versions and mini reviews of popular programming have eager audiences in China, they can still constitute copyright violations. China’s online video platforms, normally at loggerheads as they battle for market share, have come together to condemn those who use their content for unauthorized highlight clips, synopses, and reaction reels — emergent formats that are becoming increasingly popular among the country’s young viewers. In a joint statement Friday, over 70 streaming sites, production compan ..read more

The short-video platform’s stated goal of promoting “a civilized lifestyle” aligns with an ongoing government campaign to make China’s cyberspace more positive and wholesome. LIONEL BONAVENTURE | AFP | Getty Images If you live in China, flexing with a fat wad of cash can get you banned on TikTok. In a notice Friday, Douyin — as the enormously popular short-video app is branded in China — said six kinds of content including “flaunting wealth” are now banned on the platform because they promote “unhealthy values.” The content prohibitions follow the introduction of livestreaming regulatio ..read more

A Chinese writer’s submission for a prestigious domestic award was found to have copied the entire plot from a decades-old story by the prominent American author. A prestigious Chinese science fiction magazine has apologized after publishing a literature prize submission piece it later discovered was a “full-text copy” of a short story by renowned American author Stephen King. “Masterless” by design student Li Qingzhi appeared in the February issue of Science Fiction World, one of several submissions to be considered for China’s most prestigious science fiction prize, the Galaxy Award. Howeve ..read more

A Chinese copyright body has requested Kuaishou remove 10,000 videos from its platform for alleged infringement of intellectual property rights, and that may just be the start. The order comes as the short video app prepares to trade its shares in Hong Kong. The China Audio-Video Copyright Association (CAVCA), a government-backed social organization that engages in collective copyright management and collects fees from licensing its members’ music and videos, said in a statement on Monday that it found some 155 million videos on Kuaishou that used copyrighted background mu ..read more

Douyin, the sister app of ByteDance’s global sensation TikTok, has been slapped with the maximum penalty for spreading “obscene, pornographic and vulgar information” online, in the latest sign that Beijing is ramping up efforts to clean up the country’s cyberspace. The fine came after internet watchdogs received more than 900 reports of pornographic and vulgar content being circulated on Douyin last year, the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications said in a statement on Friday. Among Douyin livestreamers’ actions that were deemed improper, the statement mentio ..read more

Dozens of screenwriters, directors, and producers are calling for shows to stop “publicizing and hyping” intellectual property thieves by continuing to invite them on. More than 100 insiders from China’s television industry are calling for variety shows to stop extending invitations to guests who have been implicated in plagiarism scandals. In an open letter Monday, 111 screenwriters, directors, and producers said shows featuring industry figures with histories of “plagiarism-related misdeeds” as mentors or guests had made them feel “very disgusted” and “extremely indignant.” The le ..read more

Several accounts on short-video platforms claiming to be Jin Dong were found to be deceiving his fans — especially women of a certain age. A popular Chinese actor is considering legal action against users on short-video platforms who created fake accounts under his name for personal gain. The actor, Jin Dong, said Tuesday through his agency that he doesn’t have a personal account on any Chinese short-video platform and urged users to delete all content that violates his “portrait rights and brand name.” The 43-year-old actor’s statement came after a woman in the eastern Jiangxi prov ..read more

Chinese video streaming firm iQiyi said in a statement on Monday that its internal review into the financial fraud allegations made by American short seller Wolfpack Research “did not uncover any evidence that would substantiate the allegations.” The announcement comes two months after iQiyi disclosed that it was under a probe launched by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in reaction to an April report in which Wolfpack accused iQiyi of inflating its 2019 revenue by roughly 8 billion yuan ($1.14 billion) to 13 billion yuan. In Monday’s statement, Baidu-backed iQiyi s ..read more

Japan is tightening the screws on the embattled TikTok, with a top lawmaker suggesting that changing the ownership of the ByteDance-owned short video app’s Japan business could help address mounting data security concerns. During an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Norihiro Nakayama, a senior member of a group of lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) looking into Chinese apps, gave his personal view that ByteDance selling TikTok’s Japanese operations could be an option to ensure safety of Japanese users’ data. “We want to create an environment in which ..read more