On July 2, the short drama label Tinghuadao issued a rights protection statement, claiming that Nanjing Zhuying Xinguang Technology Co., Ltd. plagiarized Tinghuadao's copyrighted work "Home and Away" without authorization and used it for commercial profit, pointing out that this behavior has seriously infringed its legal rights and interests.
The statement pointed out, "On June 26, 2025, our company received a report that "A Short Journey into a Colorful World" was suspected of plagiarizing "At Home and Away" and was broadcast online on multiple platforms such as Kuaishou, WeChat Mini Programs, and Douyin. Upon comparison, "A Short Journey into a Colorful World" is highly similar to our work "At Home and Away" in terms of plot connection, sequence arrangement, storyboard design, lens language, picture connection, and even lines." The statement detailed 9 groups of screenshots comparing the two short dramas, and marked the corresponding episodes and specific content.
Poster of Home and Away
Poster of "A Smoke and Fireworks World"
Tinghuadao said: "'Home and Away' is an original short play of our company, which embodies the countless efforts and emotions of our screenwriters and creative team. Without the permission of the copyright owner, maliciously plagiarizing other people's works and obtaining commercial benefits from it is not only a contempt for the labor results of the creative staff, but also a serious infringement of our company's copyright and other legal rights! Our company has commissioned a lawyer to issue a "Lawyer's Statement" for this behavior, and resolutely safeguard our company's legal rights. Our company reserves all rights to pursue legal liability for suspected infringement of our company's original works, copyright and other legal rights."
Listen to Huadao's lawyer's statement
In this regard, the reporter of The Paper interviewed Tinghua Island, the party involved in the incident, and received the following response: "A statement was just issued this afternoon. No lawsuit has been filed yet. Our legal colleagues are still making their own judgment."
"Home and Away" is a period love vertical screen short drama directed by Kenan Yang, written by Santai, Jingtian Huang, and Xie Xie, and starring Wang Daotie, Sun Yiran, Yin Miaomiao, Dai Wenjun, Feng Yiran, and Zhang Jingxi.
The story takes place in the Sichuan and Chongqing regions in the early 1980s. During the disaster relief of a devastating flood, Chen Haiqing, a single father and engineer, met Cai Xiaoyan, a single mother who worked at an ink factory. The two developed a deep relationship due to their common beliefs and experiences. They each brought a child and got married in a flash to form a new family of four. The reconstituted family not only has to face the changes in the external environment and the challenges of the times, but also has to deal with conflicts and misunderstandings among family members. The family of four cares for and supports each other, resists the wind and rain from the outside world, and becomes better and better, writing a series of heartwarming stories full of trust and love.
After the series premiered in March this year, it received a lot of praise and scored 7.9 on Douban.
At present, the main forms of piracy in the short drama market are pirated copies and remakes. Tinghuadao said that the infringements the company encountered before were mostly resource leaks, and the way they chose to deal with them was mostly "sending letters to the company and platform, and negotiating with the other party."
Tinghuadao has also successfully defended its rights against piracy infringements on overseas server websites through litigation. "We have been actively working with partner organizations to take some crackdown measures, including technical monitoring methods, external partner lawyers and organizations. We have persisted in defending our rights, filed lawsuits, and conducted settlements, and have achieved good results. We also have many ongoing rights protection projects."
However, Tinghuadao said that "pixel-level plagiarism" of plots, images, and lines like this one "usually happens overseas, but not in China. This one has exactly the same plot."
The reporter of The Paper noted that "A Piece of Fireworks in the World" has been removed from relevant mini-programs and platforms. However, pirated resources and illegal secondary creations of the drama can still be retrieved on short video platforms.
As of press time, The Paper reporter has not yet contacted the person in charge of the short drama at Nanjing Zhuying Xinguang Technology Co., Ltd.
In recent years, short short dramas have become a new force in promoting the innovation and development of the online audio-visual industry, but the copyright issues related to them have also become increasingly prominent, such as plagiarism, copyright infringement, plagiarism and other infringement and piracy phenomena. Short short dramas are faced with practical problems such as poor copyright transactions and difficulty in overseas rights protection when going overseas.
In April this year, the Central Propaganda Department stated that in the "Sword Net 2025" special operation it organized, it would make standardizing the copyright order of short dramas a key task and guide copyright law enforcement departments at all levels to investigate and deal with major cases in the field of online audio-visual.
The National Copyright Administration will further strengthen copyright protection in the field of micro-short dramas and other online audio-visual products, and promote the healthy development of the copyright ecology of the micro-short drama industry.
