A Murder Sparked by a Chinese Bun became a hot topic at an Internet copyright conference held by the State Council Information Office on Wednesday.

 

Wang Ziqiang, a spokesman for National Copyright Administration of China, said whether the video has infringed on the copyright of the movie The Promise should be judged by the court.

 

A lawyer surnamed Zhu hired by producers of the movie, China Film Group Corporation and Shengkai Corporation, to handle the Bun case also spoke to reporters Wednesday.

 

Zhu said that Bun damages the integrity of the movie. But he also said that the online short video was not the most important reason The Promise producers want to sue the author.

 

 

Hu Ge

 

"What matters is that Hu Ge repeatedly claimed in public that he didn't infringe on the copyright and Chen has no reason to sue him. This made my clients upset and they decided to protect their rights by law," said Zhu.

 

According to Zhu, the case has not yet been officially brought to court.

 

Hu reportedly apologized to director Chen through the media. Hu was quoted by the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily saying: "I used Chen Kaige's product without his permission. Now I'd like to send my sincere apology to him. But one thing needs to be made clear, I didn't damage the copyright."

 

Interestingly, a Guangdong TV station has offered to invest in Hu's production of original short films.

 

Ren Hua, vice chief of the Southern TV Station, said that regardless of the Bun lawsuit, they considered the Bun a good work and Hu an intelligent man. Ren said that a creative person is what they need.

 

(Shenzhen Daily February 17, 2006)