I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 626 The Huacheng Daily Sues ByteDance

Chen Zhiyuan took off his reading glasses and rubbed his sore eyes.

On the desk lay the financial statements for the fourth quarter of this year—advertising revenue declined by 37% year-on-year, and the daily circulation of printed copies was approximately 185 million, the lowest in ten years.

As the president and editor-in-chief of the Huacheng Daily, he knew better than anyone that the era of newspapers was dying.

A fierce wind howled outside the window, and large raindrops pounded against the glass. Chen Zhiyuan stood quietly in front of the French windows, his gaze piercing through the misty rain and landing on the lone kapok tree in the yard.

The tree shook violently in the storm; its fiery red blossoms had long since been knocked to the ground, mingling with the mud and water like stains of blood.

He clearly remembers that the kapok tree was planted 32 years ago, when he had just been assigned to the Huacheng Daily as an editor after graduating from Sun Yat-sen University.

At that time, the country had just emerged from that special era, and everything was new. Newspapers published all kinds of news and commentaries every day, both international and domestic, covering literature, thought, freedom, and democracy. Each issue was snapped up by readers from all over the country as soon as it was printed.

Those were truly the golden age of newspapers.

In the blink of an eye, 32 years have passed. The kapok tree has grown into a towering tree, and I have risen from a junior editor to the editor-in-chief.

But the golden age of newspapers has passed, followed by the silver age and the bronze age.
This kapok tree witnessed the rise and fall of the Huacheng Daily, and now it is like that kapok tree swaying in the wind.

Just then, someone knocked on the door and came in. It was his assistant, holding a document in his hand, with a strange expression: "Mr. Chen, the legal department just discovered that Toutiao reprinted 67 of our in-depth reports without authorization, without even removing the image watermarks. Take a look."

Chen Zhiyuan did not take the documents. Instead, he took out his phone from his pocket, opened the Toutiao app, and found that a local news article was popping up in the app. The title, text, and even the layout were exactly the same as the front page of the Guangzhou Daily this morning. The only difference was that the bottom was labeled "AI intelligent recommendation".

“These internet robbers…” He clenched his fist.

After a moment, he said, word by word, "Notify the legal department: We will immediately sue ByteDance!"

Today is the weekend, and Fang Qingye took a car to Shanghai on Friday night to reunite with Bai Ou.

Bai Ou is almost five months pregnant, and her belly is obviously growing, but she still goes to work on time. So every Friday, Fang Qingye arrives in Shanghai early to accompany his wife for a walk, which is an important activity for him now.

However, it was windy and cold outside today, so people could only stay indoors in the villa. Bai Ou, with her pregnant belly, walked back and forth in the living room as if taking a stroll, while Fang Qingye sat on the sofa scrolling through her phone.

Suddenly, a news item on Toutiao caught his attention.

The Huacheng Daily has sued ByteDance's Toutiao for copyright infringement!
This was a big deal, Fang Qingye read it carefully.

The gist is that much of the content published on ByteDance's "Toutiao" platform involves original content from the "Huacheng Daily," which published it without authorization. Therefore, ByteDance has filed a lawsuit in the local court, demanding that ByteDance immediately cease the infringement, issue a public apology in the newspaper, and pay 1 million RMB in damages.

One hundred million RMB.

No wonder it made the headlines so quickly.

"Bai Ou, take a look at this." Fang Qingye handed his phone to his wife, who was taking a walk.

She has a legal background, so she is more sensitive to this.

Sure enough, Bai Ou took it and glanced at it before saying, "It was only a matter of time before ByteDance was sued. If it wasn't Huacheng Daily, it could be some other newspaper."

Fang Qingye nodded: "If ByteDance responds to the lawsuit, what do you think its chances of winning are?"

Bai Ou frowned slightly upon hearing this, and after a moment's thought, said, "This involves the professionalism of both sides' lawyers, as well as the judge's understanding of the internet. After all, ByteDance's use of 'web crawler' technology is unprecedented; there are no precedents to follow, so it's hard to say what will happen." "But regardless, even if ByteDance wins, it will come at a great cost, and it will be labeled as 'theft,' which will be amplified on the internet, extremely detrimental to ByteDance's future development. And if they lose..."

Bai Ou looked up at Fang Qingye: "Then more newspapers will file lawsuits, and ByteDance will be doomed."

“You’re right, this matter must be handled with utmost care,” Fang Qingye said. “My trip to Yanjing this time will focus on resolving this issue.”

Just two days later, news of ByteDance being sued flooded major websites. Traditional media seized the opportunity to launch a full-scale attack, denouncing ByteDance as a "thief" and "robber." Some attention-seeking self-media personalities also joined in the clamor. Suddenly, a storm was brewing, and ByteDance went from a rising internet star to a pariah.

At this moment, Fang Qingye was on the high-speed train from Shanghai to Beijing, accompanied by Yue Kai.

When Fang Qingye traveled within China on business, she would almost always take him with her.

The Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed ​​Railway spans 1,300 kilometers and takes four and a half hours to complete. It is known as the "high-speed railway with the strongest sense of community in China" and is practically a "high-speed railway for transporting migrant workers over 800 li." In later generations, it was also called the "high-speed railway for oxen and horses."

Fang Qingye was sitting in the business class. It was quiet, but each passenger had a laptop on the small table next to them, and everyone was working quietly.

Fang Qingye was the only one wearing headphones, listening to music, and resting with her eyes closed.

He's the boss, so no one dares to pressure him.

Just then, the phone rang in his earpiece. He picked up the phone next to him and saw that it was Zhang Yimin calling.

"Chairman Fang, I have some bad news." Zhang Yimin's voice sounded anxious on the other end of the phone.

"Oh, you said?"

"The Beijing News has also sued us for infringement, demanding 6000 million yuan in compensation."

"Huh? Not as many as the *Huacheng Daily*." Fang Qingye laughed.

Zhang Yimin was extremely anxious, but when she heard Fang Qingye's relaxed tone, she was stunned: "Chairman Fang, aren't you worried?"

"What are you worried about? Whether you respond to one lawsuit or two, it's all the same."

Hearing that Zhang Yimin remained silent on the other end of the line, Fang Qingye's tone became more serious: "Yimin, you don't need to worry about how many media outlets sue us. You need to pay close attention to the regulatory authorities' views on this matter! Their attitude is crucial to us."

"The company has not received any written or verbal inquiries from regulatory authorities, and they have remained silent."

"That's good. We'll talk about everything once I get to Yanjing."

"OK!"

"Chairman Fang said that we should all be patient and wait until he comes to Yanjing before discussing anything further," Zhang Yimin said to the somewhat anxious executives around him.

The group looked at each other, their eyes revealing their confusion.

What methods does this chairman have to resolve all of this?

What's the real purpose of this?

(End of this chapter)