"The Princess Weiyoung" goes to court
26 Apr - The plagiarism case against the author of "The Princess Weiyoung" held its first public trial recently.
As reported on Tencent, Wang Guohua, the legal representatives of the 12 writers who filed the lawsuit, revealed that Zhou Jing (pen name Qin Jian) was suspected of copying over hundreds of other works to create her own hit novel, which had since became a television series of the same name, starring Tiffany Tang.
The plaintiffs are claiming an amount of RMB 410,500 in compensation.
The first of the series of cases that was held at the Chaoyang District People's Court focused on the plagiarism made from another work, "Shenli Liu Di Chong Bu Shuai". The plaintiffs claimed that Zhou copied 580 sentences and 118 plots from the novel.
On the other hand, Zhou's lawyer has denied the plagiarism allegations, and asked the court to dismiss all the claims.
"Our work is an independent creation, not an infringement of the plaintiffs' copyright," said the rep.
An alliance of writers has been preparing a lawsuit against Zhou since November last year, accusing her of copying over 200 works.
While many thought it was due to the novel being adapted as a television series, it was revealed that the lawsuit has been in the making for years since it was first published in instalments online in 2012.
The controversy gained more attention when respected wuxia writer Woon Swee Oan joined the alliance, making him the 12th person, and the case - the largest infringement case of all time.
On the other hand, lawyer Wang Guohua stated that they are waiting for the court notice for the date of hearing on other cases against Zhou.
