Improvised lyrics lead to copyright dispute

The controversy over the copyright to a popular song recently hit the headlines in the local media and drawn attention to the rights of songwriters. 

On the celebrity reality show I Am A Singer broadcast by Hunan Satellite TV in January, the singer duo Chen Yufan and Hu Haiquan moved many of the audience to tears with their performance of Mum in the Candlelight. 

Yet changes they made in the song resulted in lyricist Li Chunli sending a lawyer's letter to Hunan TV and the duo asking for a public apology and 200,000 yuan ($32,659) for use of the song. 

Gu Jianfen, who composed the music for Li's words, has also been in talks with the TV station, Chinanews.com reported. 

In response, the duo said during a live concert in May that "it should be the program's producers that come out to deal with it". 

"We signed a contract before joining in the show, leaving all the copyright matters with the Hunan TV," the news portal quoted their agent saying. 

Yet Li told Guangming Online that "I lost my song". 

"Changing a song without any prior notice is the greatest disrespect to composers and lyricists. It's like your own kids are grabbed by others for a facelift and then their real mom is made unknown to the public." 

Li wrote the song at the age of 17 for her mother, who had been ill for a long time and "liked every word of the it". 

When her mother passed away three years ago, Li played the song as a goodbye at the funeral. Now each year she sings it to her mother on the Tomb-Sweeping Day, the newspaper website reported. 

"It is of great importance to me," she said. "Its creation embodies my own experience and feelings." 

The song has been popular over the past two decades, which has made it particularly vulnerable to copyright violations. But this is the first time the writer has turned to a legal remedy. 

Li said she doesn't think the duo made changes out of malice, but they "should show respect to creators and not twist the original meaning". 

Lu Junjie, an attorney representing Li, told Workers' Daily that the contract between Hunan TV and the Music Copyright Society of China makes it clear that the song must be used in its original form. 

Any change is subject to agreement by copyright owners, Lu said. 

Ge Xiaoying, Gu's attorney, said "it is quite clear that this is an infringement." 

Though Hunan Satellite TV has apologized, it has not been "active, complete and timely" in dealing with the issue, he said. 

"In sharp contrast to low infringement costs, the process of maintaining rights is protracted with higher costs, a situation that prevents many copyright owners from going through legal procedures," the attorney said. 

"Building an environment for intellectual property protection is a systemic project that cannot be resolved merely with one or two cases," Ge said. 

"Many people have just gotten used to infringement, like the frequent running of a red light," said Gu. "I have done nothing but spend my time maintaining my rights in recent years." 

Lyricist Li said she couldn't understand why IP infringement is "not a big deal in so many eyes". 

"What embarrasses me most when I try to maintain rights is the massive disregard for copyrights," she said. 

Composer Gu is a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. Almost every one of her proposals is related to the issue. 

She recalled that one delegate once asked: "Why do you always ask for money?" 

"Why not learn from Lei Feng, (a household name in the country who did good deeds for no return)?" 

"The awareness is terrible," said the songwriter now in her seventies. "I stand out to fight infringement because I don't want young musicians to lose hope." 

China's digital music generated more than 30 billion yuan in revenue in 2011, yet just less than 3 percent went to record companies and creators. 

In contrast, music owners get at least 70 percent of the income in the United States, Japan and South Korea, according to People's Daily.