"We are like whack-a-mole, we have to fight against a steady stream of pirate groups every day." Kong Xiaoxi, the marketing director of Ozgewei Culture, which belongs to the "New Live" high-definition screening series, complained bitterly to The Paper. When interviewed by reporters, she had just knocked down a pirated "live broadcast" in the video account.
Nowadays, high-definition official photos of the stage are popular, online performances are in the ascendant, and various copyright owners are also suffering from piracy and piracy, and "New Live" is one of them.
As of January 2022, the "New Live" screening has reached 208 plays, covering 53 places including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Taipei, Hong Kong, etc., with more than 9,000 screenings and more than 680,000 moviegoers.
At the same time, the "new scene" is also fighting against the piracy that emerges one after another. When the epidemic hit the performance market again, the dissemination and sale of high-definition images became a hot "business opportunity", and unauthorized pirated "live broadcasts" emerged in the circle of friends, causing them to complain.
When defending rights, Li Congzhou, president of Aozhewei Culture, said that they have always insisted on the "dynamic clearing" of piracy. When encountering diehards, I can be so angry that I can’t sleep, but I always feel that it is a respect and obligation to the copyright owner and high-quality content.”
"How can 'Art Without Boundaries' become a justifiable excuse for piracy?" Kong Xiaoxi is even more worried that the free broadcasts in full swing (including many unknown sources) will completely exhaust the paying habit of the audience before and forget the ceremony of entering the theater. "I am afraid that for the performance market and the cultural industry, losing the habit of paying and losing the audience is the real dead end."
The Paper: The phenomenon of piracy of stage works emerges in an endless stream. What have you experienced?
Kong Xiaoxi: We have been working on the fight against piracy for as long as the "New Site" has been established.
Before the appearance of high-definition official photography of stage works, some people will secretly record and steal the performance scene, but the picture quality and sound will be affected. At that time, there were occasional pirated videos abroad, but the spread was not too obvious, and copyright maintenance was relatively fast. There are also in China, but it is not a large scale, because everyone does not know that they can still watch official photos. In addition, apart from the classic plays by Shakespeare and Molière, many people do not know much about contemporary foreign plays, and they may not even be able to name them, so they cannot even talk about their willingness to watch.
In 2015, we began to introduce and promote high-definition screening in some formal official channels. Some people may go to find resources, and piracy has also begun to increase. This is a positively related thing.
Those who spread piracy will share it through various platforms and resource groups, and let people buy it. There are also many websites that do not need to provide any qualification certificate or copyright statement, they can upload these works, and they also avoid some keywords, which are very hidden. All in all, it's something that has no illegal cost.
If the platform does not play a regulatory role, we are like whack-a-mole, fighting against a steady stream of piracy groups every day. There are 10 people passing on it today, and we have to spend 10 efforts to fight it tomorrow. How can we beat it?
There are even more extreme, public screenings. Some people save the resources downloaded from the Internet and go to a private cinema for screening, which is known as "fans' private room". The same thing happens in schools, and even in teachers' classrooms. Teachers will plausibly say that this is teaching, not profit. Such a professional teacher and indifferent legal awareness will make us particularly chill. For example, there are no university textbooks, teachers buy textbooks from foreign countries, and students copy one copy by hand. This is definitely not right! Even if the teacher buys the video, it should not be shown publicly, because some videos do not have the right to show them.
The Paper: Has it become popular recently to "live" pirated resources through WeChat's video account?
Kong Xiaoxi: Yes, it is very difficult to manage. There is always a record of uploading on the website, and the video is always hanging. We can take a screenshot and leave the certificate, and we can go to the uploader or the website to remove it. But if you live on the video account, if you don't see the preview, you won't know when the live broadcast is over, you can't keep the evidence, and there's nothing you can do about them. The platform has not been reviewed either. This is the latest communication format. The improvement of the platform requires a process, so the new format is the most difficult to manage.
Why is everyone angry about the "live broadcast" incident of "Hamilton" on the video account two days ago? Just because they use pirated resources to attract fans, attract traffic, and make profits, and they think they are sharing precious resources that everyone can't see.
Some people do it for the sake of fans, for profit, and some people say that I am just a hobby, and I just want to share it with you. But such a statement is not worth making righteously. Because these things are not yours. What is the difference between robbing the rich and helping the poor when you share it generously? When opening a warehouse for grain relief, don’t forget that it is someone else’s warehouse.
Some people say that resources are not flying all over the sky. Are you serious about this? I still say that, the bottom line is still there, that is, you cannot share or sell it publicly, and turn the works of art that others have worked hard for into a tool for your profit.
Kong Xiaoxi: There are thousands of words in one sentence: defending rights is too difficult and the cost is too high, so illegal acts are so arrogant.
When we first came into contact with the website, there were no formal complaints. If you don't go around 100 turns, and you don't find a lawyer's letter from the website's copyright department and legal department, you can't take down pirated resources.
Now, some well-established online platforms can be taken off the shelf through some complex but at least programmatic processes, but this is only a little easier in the process. The website will not set up some keywords to block the upload of these resources.
With so many infringing channels, sometimes you are already tired when you hit half of it. The wildfire will never burn, and the spring breeze will blow again. We always need to break it one by one, and we always need to start from scratch, and do the most basic legal education with those uploaders.
The Paper: Are you worried now that the free-to-air broadcast will exhaust the paying habit that the audience has developed before, and forget the ritual sense of entering the theater?
Kong Xiaoxi: Many of this year's live broadcasts were conducted through mobile phones, such as the video account of WeChat, which caused a lot of headaches.
When watching on a computer or on a projection screen, the screen is still larger, you need to sit down, you need to set aside a complete time period, and there is a certain sense of ritual. Watching the live broadcast in the circle of friends, you can enter and exit at will, there is no continuity, and the sense of damage to the stage art is still quite strong. Who would watch a movie for two hours on a cell phone? It is very likely that you will be interrupted by WeChat and phone calls that pop up. This is a very bad viewing habit.
In addition, there are no restrictions on the live broadcast of the video account, and the supervision of the platform is not in place. Anyone can move the resources downloaded from the Internet to the live broadcast, which makes it even more difficult to appeal one by one.
When resources are flying all over the sky, and you can just click and watch on your mobile phone, it is likely to destroy everyone’s habit of paying to watch performances online and going to the theater to watch performances.
"The high-definition screening has laid the foundation, and everyone will be willing to enter the theater"
The Paper: Does "New Scene" update its film list every year, and what are your international standards for selecting plays?
Kong Xiaoxi: Updated every year. Dramas, such as the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, classical, such as the Royal Opera House, Bolshoi Theatre... We will always pay attention to the plays, operas and dance works of these world-class art institutions. They have been updated, and we will bring over most of the good works, except for some that are too far away from the Chinese audience's inclination or preference, or those whose evaluations are not very good when they perform overseas are screened out.
The Paper: After purchasing the copyright of a work, how long do you generally have the right to use it?
Kong Xiaoxi: About 1-2 years. The recording party also has a copyright period, and they have an agreement when they sign with the crew and the producer. So people say why some works can't be seen, that's because they no longer have copyright on a global scale. So some people said, in this case, can you open one eye and close the other? But from the most fundamental point of view, we have no reason to automatically put it online and automatically spread it.
The Paper: "New Live" is now mainly shown in theaters and theaters?
Kong Xiaoxi: Mainly theater. Because they are the content of the stage, and the audience is also the audience of the stage, our mainstream screening is based on the method of performance approval. Of course, we have also organized several film festivals with certain themes, which will be shown in theaters. The ticket price for a screening is generally 120 yuan.
Kong Xiaoxi: This is one of the reasons why we persist in doing it even under such difficult circumstances.
In addition to Shakespeare and Molière, it was difficult for everyone to name a few foreign playwrights, especially contemporary playwrights. Because they won't show up in your life vision. Generally, books are widely disseminated, but if you search for the plays of those playwrights, there are basically none in China. They are too niche.
After the popularity of high-definition screening, we have met many excellent playwrights. When our new media platform translates plays, we also write articles around playwrights. Everyone will get to know some contemporary creators and go after their new plays.
From the perspective of the market, many people may also realize that the drama is still pretty good.
There is a certain threshold for the popularity of drama. A person who is only curious about the theater may be hesitant to spend three or five hundred dollars in the theater for the first time. But if he can find out for only 120 yuan, he may be more willing to contact. And the quality of the works we introduce is absolutely on the level, and the experience will never be very bad.
We are now introducing many art categories, such as drama, ballet, opera, musical, concert, musical and documentary. You may be completely ignorant of some arts, or you may not have liked them at all, but you may have opened the door to a new world by visiting them out of trust in the quality we have introduced.
The Paper: Has anyone walked into the theater after watching your high-definition screening?
Kong Xiaoxi: Yes! A typical example is the "Late Night Dog Incident". We started playing high-definition images of it in 2015 for two or three years. In 2018, this drama produced by the British National Theatre was introduced to China for the first time. It went around Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. It sold very well, and even a ticket was hard to come by.
This is a play about autism written by contemporary playwrights. In fact, it is a small play. The subject matter is small, there are no star casts, and the playwrights are not known to everyone... If there is no high-definition video as a foreshadowing and promotion in the early stage, I would I find it difficult to have a show party willing to take it to China for a tour.
The high-definition screening has laid a market foundation. When the live performance comes, everyone will be willing to enter the theater. On the contrary, after the live performance is gone, we can still do a high-definition screening, so that some people who have not seen or have seen the scene at the time can watch it again. The introduction of high-definition images is definitely much less costly than the trial-and-error cost of directly picking up an international group.
Kong Xiaoxi: There are time and location limitations for offline screenings. We have some plays that have the copyright for online broadcasting, which have been available for online on-demand on Tencent Video for a long time. Currently, there are 48 plays in four categories: drama, musical, ballet, and opera. The film is in theaters, with Chinese subtitles. The cost of a single piece is only 20 yuan, and it can be played back for 30 days for free.
Copyright is also divided into online and offline, which are completely separate and must be purchased separately. Many high-definition video brands, in order to insist on picture quality and sound quality, do not do online screenings, but only do offline screenings.
We have had online screenings since 2017. In 2020, we will have a big breakthrough, and more brands will join. For example, NT Live at the National Theatre in the United Kingdom has never been shown online before. In 2020, due to the epidemic, the audience really can’t go offline to watch it. They have established an online platform and organized a limited-time free show of many theatrical works. As the exclusive importer of NT Live in China, we also followed closely with the National Theatre of England and simultaneously launched some Chinese subtitled versions of theatrical works online. After a few limited-time free screenings, the online platform of the British National Theatre has officially entered a paid state and has been running for a long time.
Nowadays, high-definition official photos of the stage are popular, online performances are in the ascendant, and various copyright owners are also suffering from piracy and piracy, and "New Live" is one of them.
"New Live" HD Screening Collection
The "New Live" high-definition screening series was created by Beijing Aozhewei Culture, dedicated to presenting the best works on the world stage to Chinese audiences through high-definition screening. Many of the plays, operas, dances, and exhibition videos of world-class institutions such as the National Theatre of England, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Opera House, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the Bolshoi Theatre, and the Comédie de France have borrowed the "new scene" to introduce China.As of January 2022, the "New Live" screening has reached 208 plays, covering 53 places including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Taipei, Hong Kong, etc., with more than 9,000 screenings and more than 680,000 moviegoers.
At the same time, the "new scene" is also fighting against the piracy that emerges one after another. When the epidemic hit the performance market again, the dissemination and sale of high-definition images became a hot "business opportunity", and unauthorized pirated "live broadcasts" emerged in the circle of friends, causing them to complain.
When defending rights, Li Congzhou, president of Aozhewei Culture, said that they have always insisted on the "dynamic clearing" of piracy. When encountering diehards, I can be so angry that I can’t sleep, but I always feel that it is a respect and obligation to the copyright owner and high-quality content.”
"How can 'Art Without Boundaries' become a justifiable excuse for piracy?" Kong Xiaoxi is even more worried that the free broadcasts in full swing (including many unknown sources) will completely exhaust the paying habit of the audience before and forget the ceremony of entering the theater. "I am afraid that for the performance market and the cultural industry, losing the habit of paying and losing the audience is the real dead end."
"New Live" HD Screening Collection
"The bottom line is still there, that is, it cannot be shared or sold publicly"The Paper: The phenomenon of piracy of stage works emerges in an endless stream. What have you experienced?
Kong Xiaoxi: We have been working on the fight against piracy for as long as the "New Site" has been established.
Before the appearance of high-definition official photography of stage works, some people will secretly record and steal the performance scene, but the picture quality and sound will be affected. At that time, there were occasional pirated videos abroad, but the spread was not too obvious, and copyright maintenance was relatively fast. There are also in China, but it is not a large scale, because everyone does not know that they can still watch official photos. In addition, apart from the classic plays by Shakespeare and Molière, many people do not know much about contemporary foreign plays, and they may not even be able to name them, so they cannot even talk about their willingness to watch.
In 2015, we began to introduce and promote high-definition screening in some formal official channels. Some people may go to find resources, and piracy has also begun to increase. This is a positively related thing.
Those who spread piracy will share it through various platforms and resource groups, and let people buy it. There are also many websites that do not need to provide any qualification certificate or copyright statement, they can upload these works, and they also avoid some keywords, which are very hidden. All in all, it's something that has no illegal cost.
If the platform does not play a regulatory role, we are like whack-a-mole, fighting against a steady stream of piracy groups every day. There are 10 people passing on it today, and we have to spend 10 efforts to fight it tomorrow. How can we beat it?
There are even more extreme, public screenings. Some people save the resources downloaded from the Internet and go to a private cinema for screening, which is known as "fans' private room". The same thing happens in schools, and even in teachers' classrooms. Teachers will plausibly say that this is teaching, not profit. Such a professional teacher and indifferent legal awareness will make us particularly chill. For example, there are no university textbooks, teachers buy textbooks from foreign countries, and students copy one copy by hand. This is definitely not right! Even if the teacher buys the video, it should not be shown publicly, because some videos do not have the right to show them.
The Paper: Has it become popular recently to "live" pirated resources through WeChat's video account?
Kong Xiaoxi: Yes, it is very difficult to manage. There is always a record of uploading on the website, and the video is always hanging. We can take a screenshot and leave the certificate, and we can go to the uploader or the website to remove it. But if you live on the video account, if you don't see the preview, you won't know when the live broadcast is over, you can't keep the evidence, and there's nothing you can do about them. The platform has not been reviewed either. This is the latest communication format. The improvement of the platform requires a process, so the new format is the most difficult to manage.
Why is everyone angry about the "live broadcast" incident of "Hamilton" on the video account two days ago? Just because they use pirated resources to attract fans, attract traffic, and make profits, and they think they are sharing precious resources that everyone can't see.
Some people do it for the sake of fans, for profit, and some people say that I am just a hobby, and I just want to share it with you. But such a statement is not worth making righteously. Because these things are not yours. What is the difference between robbing the rich and helping the poor when you share it generously? When opening a warehouse for grain relief, don’t forget that it is someone else’s warehouse.
Some people say that resources are not flying all over the sky. Are you serious about this? I still say that, the bottom line is still there, that is, you cannot share or sell it publicly, and turn the works of art that others have worked hard for into a tool for your profit.
"New site" complaint work order on a certain website, each work order can complain about 10 hotlinks
The Paper: Is the process of rights protection difficult?Kong Xiaoxi: There are thousands of words in one sentence: defending rights is too difficult and the cost is too high, so illegal acts are so arrogant.
When we first came into contact with the website, there were no formal complaints. If you don't go around 100 turns, and you don't find a lawyer's letter from the website's copyright department and legal department, you can't take down pirated resources.
Now, some well-established online platforms can be taken off the shelf through some complex but at least programmatic processes, but this is only a little easier in the process. The website will not set up some keywords to block the upload of these resources.
With so many infringing channels, sometimes you are already tired when you hit half of it. The wildfire will never burn, and the spring breeze will blow again. We always need to break it one by one, and we always need to start from scratch, and do the most basic legal education with those uploaders.
The Paper: Are you worried now that the free-to-air broadcast will exhaust the paying habit that the audience has developed before, and forget the ritual sense of entering the theater?
Kong Xiaoxi: Many of this year's live broadcasts were conducted through mobile phones, such as the video account of WeChat, which caused a lot of headaches.
When watching on a computer or on a projection screen, the screen is still larger, you need to sit down, you need to set aside a complete time period, and there is a certain sense of ritual. Watching the live broadcast in the circle of friends, you can enter and exit at will, there is no continuity, and the sense of damage to the stage art is still quite strong. Who would watch a movie for two hours on a cell phone? It is very likely that you will be interrupted by WeChat and phone calls that pop up. This is a very bad viewing habit.
In addition, there are no restrictions on the live broadcast of the video account, and the supervision of the platform is not in place. Anyone can move the resources downloaded from the Internet to the live broadcast, which makes it even more difficult to appeal one by one.
When resources are flying all over the sky, and you can just click and watch on your mobile phone, it is likely to destroy everyone’s habit of paying to watch performances online and going to the theater to watch performances.
"The high-definition screening has laid the foundation, and everyone will be willing to enter the theater"
The Paper: Does "New Scene" update its film list every year, and what are your international standards for selecting plays?
Kong Xiaoxi: Updated every year. Dramas, such as the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, classical, such as the Royal Opera House, Bolshoi Theatre... We will always pay attention to the plays, operas and dance works of these world-class art institutions. They have been updated, and we will bring over most of the good works, except for some that are too far away from the Chinese audience's inclination or preference, or those whose evaluations are not very good when they perform overseas are screened out.
The Paper: After purchasing the copyright of a work, how long do you generally have the right to use it?
Kong Xiaoxi: About 1-2 years. The recording party also has a copyright period, and they have an agreement when they sign with the crew and the producer. So people say why some works can't be seen, that's because they no longer have copyright on a global scale. So some people said, in this case, can you open one eye and close the other? But from the most fundamental point of view, we have no reason to automatically put it online and automatically spread it.
The Paper: "New Live" is now mainly shown in theaters and theaters?
Kong Xiaoxi: Mainly theater. Because they are the content of the stage, and the audience is also the audience of the stage, our mainstream screening is based on the method of performance approval. Of course, we have also organized several film festivals with certain themes, which will be shown in theaters. The ticket price for a screening is generally 120 yuan.
Triptych of Ian McLean from 'New Live'
The Paper: What is the positive effect of high-definition screening on cultivating Chinese audiences' artistic appreciation level and cultural consumption habits?Kong Xiaoxi: This is one of the reasons why we persist in doing it even under such difficult circumstances.
In addition to Shakespeare and Molière, it was difficult for everyone to name a few foreign playwrights, especially contemporary playwrights. Because they won't show up in your life vision. Generally, books are widely disseminated, but if you search for the plays of those playwrights, there are basically none in China. They are too niche.
After the popularity of high-definition screening, we have met many excellent playwrights. When our new media platform translates plays, we also write articles around playwrights. Everyone will get to know some contemporary creators and go after their new plays.
From the perspective of the market, many people may also realize that the drama is still pretty good.
There is a certain threshold for the popularity of drama. A person who is only curious about the theater may be hesitant to spend three or five hundred dollars in the theater for the first time. But if he can find out for only 120 yuan, he may be more willing to contact. And the quality of the works we introduce is absolutely on the level, and the experience will never be very bad.
We are now introducing many art categories, such as drama, ballet, opera, musical, concert, musical and documentary. You may be completely ignorant of some arts, or you may not have liked them at all, but you may have opened the door to a new world by visiting them out of trust in the quality we have introduced.
The Paper: Has anyone walked into the theater after watching your high-definition screening?
Kong Xiaoxi: Yes! A typical example is the "Late Night Dog Incident". We started playing high-definition images of it in 2015 for two or three years. In 2018, this drama produced by the British National Theatre was introduced to China for the first time. It went around Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. It sold very well, and even a ticket was hard to come by.
This is a play about autism written by contemporary playwrights. In fact, it is a small play. The subject matter is small, there are no star casts, and the playwrights are not known to everyone... If there is no high-definition video as a foreshadowing and promotion in the early stage, I would I find it difficult to have a show party willing to take it to China for a tour.
The high-definition screening has laid a market foundation. When the live performance comes, everyone will be willing to enter the theater. On the contrary, after the live performance is gone, we can still do a high-definition screening, so that some people who have not seen or have seen the scene at the time can watch it again. The introduction of high-definition images is definitely much less costly than the trial-and-error cost of directly picking up an international group.
Online cooperation between "New Live" and Tencent Art
The Paper: In addition to offline screenings, you are also conducting online screenings on Tencent.Kong Xiaoxi: There are time and location limitations for offline screenings. We have some plays that have the copyright for online broadcasting, which have been available for online on-demand on Tencent Video for a long time. Currently, there are 48 plays in four categories: drama, musical, ballet, and opera. The film is in theaters, with Chinese subtitles. The cost of a single piece is only 20 yuan, and it can be played back for 30 days for free.
Copyright is also divided into online and offline, which are completely separate and must be purchased separately. Many high-definition video brands, in order to insist on picture quality and sound quality, do not do online screenings, but only do offline screenings.
We have had online screenings since 2017. In 2020, we will have a big breakthrough, and more brands will join. For example, NT Live at the National Theatre in the United Kingdom has never been shown online before. In 2020, due to the epidemic, the audience really can’t go offline to watch it. They have established an online platform and organized a limited-time free show of many theatrical works. As the exclusive importer of NT Live in China, we also followed closely with the National Theatre of England and simultaneously launched some Chinese subtitled versions of theatrical works online. After a few limited-time free screenings, the online platform of the British National Theatre has officially entered a paid state and has been running for a long time.
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