Restart life

Chapter 237 0234 [The Wind Rises, and the Company is Ordered to Pay 10 Yuan?]

Chen Guiliang browsed those posts and found them interesting, so he also posted a thread titled "How to Modify the Veto System of the Five Members of the UN Security Council".

"The veto power is a statutory privilege granted to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council by the UN Charter. Therefore, abolishing the veto system requires amending the UN Charter."

"Amending the UN Charter will be done in three steps."

"First, a formal proposal must be made by a member state. Second, the UN General Assembly must vote on it, requiring the support of more than two-thirds of the member states. Third, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council must unanimously agree."

"Result: The five permanent members of the UN Security Council vetoed the removal of their veto power."

"Who are you, and why are you accusing me?"

After posting the message, Chen Guiliang went to the cafeteria for lunch.

University BBS forums now require real-name registration, and many students click on posts simply because they see the poster's name.

"Mr. Chen's sofa."

"Bench".

"Peanuts, melon seeds, and cola are sold in the front row."

"This is hilarious. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council vetoed the removal of their veto power."

"President Chen finally has time to post on the BBS himself. When will 'Those Things of the Ming Dynasty' be updated?"

"Hey bro upstairs, they're still updating Volume 3 online, but it's been sitting in Xinhua bookstores for over a year."

"Who are you, and why are you accusing me?"

"That's why I said it's ridiculous who raised this question; they've embarrassed themselves in front of the UN Secretary-General. What right does Annan have to amend the veto system?"

"Mr. Chen hasn't chosen a major yet, right? Why don't you come to our School of International Relations?"

"Don't call him General Manager Chen, he should be called 'Six-Lock Car God'!"

"Haha, the nickname 'Six-Lock Car God' is pretty good. Which classmate would like to buy two more locks and put them on Mr. Chen's car, so that Mr. Chen can get an 'Eight-Door Golden Lock'?"

"The person upstairs is a Romance of the Three Kingdoms player, confirmed."

"..."

There are so many bored people. Not only do they flood BBS with spam, but some also repost their posts to Tianya, Mop, and Xici Hutong.

They recounted in detail what had happened that morning, and then copied and pasted Chen Guiliang's post.

There's a chaotic scene on Tianya (a Chinese online forum), with people even arguing and insulting each other over this topic.

Some newbies asked who Chen Guiliang was, and were given a thorough explanation by many enthusiastic netizens.

Not long after Chen Guiliang finished lunch, he was called over by Director Zhu again.

"I heard you got into an argument with someone this morning?" Director Zhu asked with a smile, showing no displeasure whatsoever.

Chen Guiliang said, "That's called a debate."

Director Zhu said, "The questions raised by the teachers and students were all rehearsed at the Peking University Model United Nations Conference. That student's question was unexpected... sigh... it was particularly low-level. Haha, your argument with him was also unexpected."

"Is Secretary-General An unhappy?" Chen Guiliang asked.

"What Secretary-General An? His surname isn't An!" Director Zhu said irritably.

Chen Guiliang said, "They're all the same."

Director Zhu said, "We just finalized a project with Yale University. Every spring and fall semester, Peking University's Yuanpei Program and Yale University will each select 15 students to form an exchange program at Peking University. The students will be roughly equal in number (male and female) and will live in graduate student dormitories. Peking University and Yale will also select professors to teach specific courses for the exchange program. Would you like to apply?"

"I'd rather not. I can't even keep up with regular courses, let alone an international exchange program like this." Chen Guiliang didn't want to take up a spot from other students.

Director Zhu said, "Alright. Then I won't consider you."

After chatting for a few more minutes, Chen Guiliang left.

Director Zhu was in high spirits. Over the past few years, the Yuanpei Program has undertaken numerous international cooperation projects. Next semester, they will partner with Yale University to run an exchange program, and they also plan to upgrade the Lee Kah Seng exchange program, selecting five Yuanpei Program students each year to study at the National University of Singapore for five months.

In addition, the school is discussing upgrading the Yuanpei Class to Yuanpei College.

Director Zhu handled all of this single-handedly.

Although Peking University produces many talented individuals, the Yuanpei Program has a very short history, with only one graduating class to date. Newly graduated students have virtually no time to discuss their future development.

Currently, only Chen Guiliang is among the Yuanpei Class students who have achieved results.

He was practically Director Zhu's darling!
No matter what good things happen, Director Zhu always gives priority to Chen Guiliang.

Chen Guiliang's reputation couldn't be ruined, so Director Zhu even personally spoke to the professors to try to keep Chen Guiliang's failure rate within the normal range.

……

"Damn it!" Chen Guiliang almost cursed when he saw his bicycle after coming out of Director Zhu's office.

Some people, having nothing better to do, added two more locks to his lock.

The Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation.

The person was quite nice; they actually left the key in the lock.

If this continues, they could even crowdfund a locksmith shop.

Chen Guiliang selected three older car locks, threw them into a nearby trash can, and left the remaining five hanging on his car. Then he rushed off to the company.

Shi Qian, who is in charge of legal affairs, now finally has a team of three.

Although he felt there weren't enough people, he was still willing to stay.

“Jiutian Music Network called this morning to say that they have won the lawsuit against the school website for the song ‘The Wind Rises’,” Shi Qian said. “The court ruled that Fenbei.com should stop the infringement and pay 10 yuan in compensation. Jiutian agrees with the judgment and asked us if we need to appeal.”

Chen Guiliang asked, "Have the other songs on Jiutian Music Network won their lawsuits?"

Shi Qian said, "They won most of the cases, but the compensation they received was very low."

The ringtone and other services for "The Wind Rises" have been handed over to Jiutian Music Network for agency. This time, Jiutian had more than 20 songs infringed, and they sued Fenbei.com together, but only won a little over 200 million yuan in compensation.

"Why is the compensation amount so small?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Shi Qian explained, "Fenbei.com destroyed the download data, and mobile operators like China Mobile and China Unicom didn't cooperate. The court couldn't determine the losses, so it ordered us to pay 10 yuan in compensation for 'The Wind Rises.' We split this 10 yuan compensation with Jiutian Music Network. It's very difficult to win this kind of lawsuit; nowadays, it's mostly settled through mediation, with a few tens of thousands of yuan paid for each song."

Tens of thousands of yuan is already quite good. He Yong sued Sina for infringing on the "Bell and Drum Tower" song, but because he couldn't figure out how many ringtones he had downloaded, he only received a symbolic compensation of 2000 yuan.

Despite its fame, "The Auspicious Three Treasures" only lost 3.3 yuan.

Chen Guiliang asked, "What should I do if I continue to sue?"

Shi Qian said, "Starting last summer, we sent lawyer's letters to Fenbei.com, China Mobile, China Unicom, and various TV stations demanding that they cease infringement. This is very beneficial to us. Next, we should reach a settlement agreement with China Mobile and China Unicom, asking them to provide the download data for the ringtone of 'The Wind Rises.' If they refuse to provide it, we will sue both China Mobile and China Unicom and apply to the court for compulsory evidence collection!"

"Let's do it this way, consider it advertising for Renren.com," Chen Guiliang said.

Taking the opportunity, Shi Qian said, "President Chen, including myself, the company currently only has three legal counsels. We often don't have enough manpower."

Chen Guiliang was both amused and exasperated: "Then hire another one. Four legal counsel at most. We'll increase the legal team to five when we hire more staff next time."

"Sure." Shi Qian knew when to stop.

Chen Guiliang returned to his office and used his Renren and HaiNei accounts to publish the same blog post, embedding the audio of "The Wind Rises".

"Since its upload, I have allowed free download and distribution of 'The Wind Rises.' However, unauthorized commercial operation by any organization or individual is prohibited. Fenbei.com has been infringing on my rights since early summer last year, and despite multiple lawyer's letters of warning, they have not stopped their infringing activities."

"The two major telecom operators, China Mobile and China Unicom, have some local subsidiaries that cooperate with platforms I authorize, and others with pirates. I have sent them lawyer's letters multiple times to warn them, but to no avail."

"The following TV stations also advertised for the copyright-infringing Fenbei.com. These TV stations are..."

"To reiterate, 'The Wind Rises' is the theme song for the school's website, carrying the youthful memories of all student users. Anyone can download and stream it online for free, and it can also be used for other non-profit activities. However, commercial use is prohibited without authorization!"

"Anyone else whose rights have been infringed by Fenbei.com can submit evidence to this email address... Let's sue Fenbei.com together!"

Chen Guiliang was doing all this with great seriousness, mainly to increase the popularity of Renren.com, aside from his genuine displeasure.

After the number of registered users on Renren.com reached 800 million, the growth rate slowed down.

There are two fixed events each year: writing "three-line love poems" in spring and holding a "campus beauty pageant" in autumn. Other events are held irregularly, often capitalizing on various trending topics, such as this month's Champions League final and the completion of the Three Gorges Dam.

This year, the total number of undergraduate and graduate students in mainland China is approximately 1600 million. The number of high school, vocational high school, and technical secondary school students is roughly 4000 million.

The total student population of 5600 million represents a potential customer base for Renren.com.

However, very few high school students register on Renren.com; they prefer using QQ Space. Even offline promotion efforts are ineffective; even if they successfully guide high school students to register, these students immediately switch back to using QQ Space.

Currently, the total number of registered users on Renren.com is 920 million, including those who have already graduated from university.

Although they have graduated, their class information on Renren.com is still preserved, and their interpersonal relationships seem to be frozen on Renren.com.

Chen Guiliang discovered an interesting phenomenon.

Before the start of the new school year last fall, many high school students who enjoyed using QQ Space became active users of Renren (a Chinese social networking site) after entering university. It's as if they grew up overnight; the shift from QQ Space to Renren marks their transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Meanwhile, senior students who originally used the school's intranet became active users of HaiNei.com after graduation. This transformation seems to be a sign of transitioning from student to working adult!
Chen Guiliang has a large following on HaiNei.com. His post about copyright infringement of "The Wind Rises" topped the HaiNei.com trending list the next day. There was no manipulation involved.

Discussion threads gradually appeared on forums and online communities, followed by reprints by portal websites and print media.

This topic is too easy to generate buzz.

From last year to this year, there have been frequent copyright infringement lawsuits involving online songs, implicating many well-known online singers, and even popular singers from traditional record companies!
More than ten record companies have publicly declared their support for Chen Guiliang's rights protection efforts.

There was also a young singer named Xu Song who quietly sent evidence of his copyright infringement to the email address Chen Guiliang had left.

(End of this chapter)