"Audi advertising plagiarism" has sparked a heated debate among netizens. While discussing the "copy and paste" plagiarism copywriting of Audi cars and advertising producers, some netizens have also enthusiastically discussed the responsibility of Andy Lau as a spokesperson.

By interpreting the following legal issues involved in this incident, the lawyer in this article leads netizens to rationally interpret the incident from a legal perspective: What rights do Peking University Manchu brothers have over the content of the transcript? What kind of behavior does Audi advertising "copy and paste" Manchu copywriting belong to? What rights does this act infringe on Man Ge? Who will be responsible for Audi, advertising companies, copywriters, and advertising publishing platforms? Does Andy Lau bear responsibility for infringement? What rights can I claim? How does Mango protect its rights and maximize its benefits?

Event Restore

May 21st

On the same day, Audi released a Xiaoman themed advertisement featuring Andy Lau as the spokesperson, and quickly became popular.

On the evening of May 21st

Peking University Man Ge released a video claiming that Audi's advertising copy was plagiarized, and compared the content of Audi's advertising with the short video released on Xiaoman's day in 2021. Peking University Man Ge said that the copywriting content was first released in the circle of friends during the Mid Autumn Festival in 2018, and was released in the video on Xiaoman's day last year and the year before.

On the morning of May 22nd

Audi Automobile has deleted the advertisement and issued an apology statement, and has instructed the creative agency M&C Saatchi to handle the copyright infringement situation as soon as possible.

At noon on May 22nd

The advertising creative agency issued a statement apologizing to the original author for its weak copyright awareness.

In the afternoon of May 22nd

Andy Lau responded, "I have 100% respect for originality, and I deeply regret it.".

Legal Interpretation

1、 What rights does Peking University Man Ge enjoy with regard to the content of the copywriting?

Written works and audio-visual works are the objects of intellectual property rights, and the Copyright Law provides for special provisions on copyright and rights related to copyright. The content of Audi's advertising copy was released in text form to the circle of friends at the Mid Autumn Festival of 2018 by Peking University Man Ge, who is the creator of the content involved in the advertising copy and enjoys copyright in the advertising copy.

2、 What kind of behavior does plagiarism belong to in Audi advertising?

Audi Corporation's act of photographing and advertising a copy created by Peking University Man Ge without authorization from Peking University Man Ge infringes upon the copyright of Peking University Man Ge, which is a copyright infringement. Article 120 of the Civil Code stipulates that if civil rights and interests are infringed upon, the infringee has the right to request the infringer to bear the liability for the infringement.

The specific types of rights that may be involved in this event include the right to reproduce, the right to disseminate information through the network, the right to perform, the right to film, and the right to adapt.

3、 Who will be responsible for Audi, advertising agency, and copywriting? What are the responsibilities?

1. As the copyright owner, Peking University Man Ge has the right to require the infringer to bear the liability for infringement. As the subject of advertising release, Audi Corporation is the subject of liability for infringement, and Peking University Man Ge can sue and require Audi Corporation to assume liability for infringement;

2. Because creative agency companies are the main body of advertising production, they should also bear the liability for infringement if they actually commit infringement acts;

3. If a copyright infringement clause is stipulated in the contract between Audi and the advertising company, Audi may, after assuming the liability for compensation, require the advertising company to bear the liability for breach of contract in accordance with the contract.

4. In copyright cases, civil liability can be assumed in the following ways: cessation of infringement, compensation for losses, apology, elimination of impact, etc. The right holder can claim separately or jointly.

4、 Does Andy Lau bear responsibility for infringement? What rights can I claim?

1. When the rights of consumers are damaged, the advertising spokesperson and the advertiser may be required to bear joint and several liabilities in accordance with this provision. According to the Advertising Law, advertising spokespersons who knowingly or should have known that advertisements for goods or services other than consumers' lives and health are false advertisements and still make recommendations or certifications shall bear joint and several liabilities with advertisers.
This incident belongs to a legal relationship of copyright infringement. PKU Man Ge claims rights protection due to copyright infringement, rather than being held liable for infringement when it is harmed as a consumer of Audi Automobile. Therefore, Liu Dehua did not apply the aforementioned provisions of the Advertising Law on joint and several liability between advertising spokesmen and advertisers in this event.

2. The person obligated to obtain the original author license is not Andy Lau. According to Article 38 of the Copyright Law, a performer who uses a work of others for performance shall obtain permission from and pay remuneration to the copyright owner. "If a performance organizer organizes a performance, the organizer shall obtain permission from and pay remuneration to the copyright owner.". It can be seen that Andy Lau has the legal obligation to obtain permission from the copyright owner to read or perform his works according to his contract with Audi.

3. Andy Lau has the right to perform short advertising videos. Article 39 of the Copyright Law stipulates that performers have independent rights over their performances. Therefore, Mr. Andy Lau has independent rights to video advertising, and can authorize Audi, advertising companies, publishers, etc. to use the rights of Mr. Andy Lau's performers involved in the advertising.

4. In addition, if Mr. Liu Dehua suffers reputational losses or other losses as a result of this incident, he may, in accordance with his contractual agreement with Audi, require Audi to compensate for the losses.

5、 Does the advertising creative service team assume responsibility?

According to online data, after the advertisement was released, the production personnel of the advertisement copy published information from their own hands on WeMedia, and the advertising team that copied and pasted the copy had obvious intent to plagiarize. According to Article 1191 of the Civil Code, if an employee of an employer causes damage to others due to the performance of a work task, the employer shall bear the liability for infringement. After assuming liability for infringement, the employer may seek compensation from the staff member who has intentional or gross negligence. Therefore, after assuming responsibility, advertising companies have the right to seek compensation from the person in charge of their advertising creativity.

6、 Is the advertising publishing platform responsible?

As a network service provider, an advertising publishing platform has a "notification deletion obligation", which means that when a copyright infringement case occurs, the network service provider is obligated to promptly delete it after receiving the infringement notice from the copyright owner. Otherwise, once it is identified as an infringement, it will be jointly and severally liable with the user for the expanded losses.

7、 How does Mango protect its rights and maximize its benefits?

If Man Ge sues for damages from Audi or advertising creative companies, how can he claim to maximize the amount of compensation? Article 54 of the Copyright Law stipulates the scope and calculation criteria for compensation for losses. In judicial practice, there are the following methods for determining compensation for losses in copyright written works infringement cases:

1. The actual loss of the obligee. "It is difficult to determine how much damage has been caused by the plagiarism of advertising copy by Peking University Man Ge. Even without this incident, the text and videos that Peking University Man Ge has released are still in the network, making it difficult to determine the actual loss.".

2. The illegal gains of the infringer. It is also difficult to measure the illegal gains of Audi as an infringer, so it is difficult to achieve compensation based on the illegal gains of Audi in this incident; It is reasonable and feasible to use the advertising production costs obtained by advertising creative companies as compensation for losses. It is not difficult to infer that the advertising company involved in the incident should have received significant production fees in Audi's advertising production.

3. Royalties. According to Article 5 of the "Payment Method for Using Written Works", the calculation standard for the remuneration of original works is 80-300 yuan per 1000 words; Poetry is calculated as one thousand words per ten lines, and works with fewer than ten lines are calculated as ten lines.

4. Court discretion. "If it is still difficult to calculate according to the first three items, the court shall, based on the circumstances of the infringement, award compensation of not less than 500 yuan but not more than 5 million yuan.".

The above standards are the calculation method for claiming compensation during the litigation process, and litigation is one of the ways to resolve disputes; If Audi and advertising creative companies can obtain the ex post authorization permission from Peking University Mango and reach an agreement on the copyright usage fee, a win-win situation will be achieved.

Lawyer tips

1. By making a comparative video of advertisements and their published video content, PKU Man Ge has a visual effect on identifying substantive similarities, and has a very typical reference role for the majority of original creators to actively respond to violations and fix evidence in the first time.

2. Intellectual property protection clauses have become indispensable provisions in commercial contracts, and the absence of such clauses may result in unpredictable liability for compensation. When signing a contract, individuals and companies should not only carefully consider the commercial terms, but also clearly stipulate the intellectual property terms to prevent and resolve the risk of intellectual property infringement.

3. In recent years, the state has vigorously cracked down on infringement of short videos. Individuals and enterprises should strengthen their copyright awareness and pay attention to originality when publishing short videos; When conducting secondary creation and commercial utilization of existing short videos, it is necessary to obtain permission from the right holder, actively explore cooperation models with the right holder, respect the original content, and achieve win-win results.