Chapter 313: Speaking of which, who isn't a professor these days! (Seeking...)

Despite being questioned by many, and despite being utterly crushed on the spot, Professor Ma still stood tall; he had status, after all, and these days, if you don't have some status when debating online, you'd be too embarrassed to even open your mouth.

Moreover, many of these audience members of Zhou Yi had been deleted and blocked, and could only continue to post by using the topic tag.

However, just as Professor Ma had finished tasting some new tea at a teahouse, in that short span of time, a reply appeared in the comment section, and it was being upvoted like crazy!

He hurriedly took a look, and as a result, this look nearly caused Professor Ma to pass out—after all, he was already feeling kidney-deficient from all the tea.

It was from someone named "Dui Ren Er Hao".

"Earlier, I was thinking of reasoning with this professor, but it turns out he doesn't reason; he opened his mouth to ask about my status, as if because he is a professor, I am not even qualified to talk to him if my status is lower, and then he blocked me directly."

"Although we always say that everyone is equal, it is a pity that it seems a certain professor feels from the bottom of his heart that people are not equal; since that's the case, I'll show my cards too."

"Isn't it a coincidence? As it happens, I am actually a professor too; hey, what a coincidence, look, I've even got my credentials ready."

Below this were the credentials photographed by Fang Dazhuang; he was not just a Guest Professor at Huadong University of Political Science and Law, but what he brought out this time was from the Law School of Imperial Capital University.

This was also where Fang Dazhuang received his legal education.

"Alright, the matter of status is settled, right? If you still don't accept it, you are welcome to go to Imperial Capital University to verify it; I have already made the call, so let's continue to debate this issue, I believe..."

Professor Ma stared at the message on his phone, stunned; he never dreamed in his wildest dreams that the person using the screen name "Dui Renyi Hao" was not only a university professor, but a professor at Imperial Capital University!

What kind of international joke was this? The school he worked at was one that few people had even heard of; how could it compare to Imperial Capital University!

This, this was absurd; were there really so many professors on the internet now?

Looking back at his previous replies, asking the other party what their status was, this was simply being executed on the spot.

Panicking, he hurriedly deleted all his previous replies, then subconsciously blocked the person, and finally rushed to delete the comments.

But it was already too late; in the time it took him to drink his tea, screenshots of these replies had already spread everywhere.

The internet age has one such advantage: even if you delete something in a second, countless people are watching; as long as one person manages to take a screenshot, then just wait, this matter of yours will surely spread to all corners...

Unless you are hit by a dimensional strike.

"Haha, this is killing me; what do you call this? This is called 'seeking a hammer and getting a hammer'; you said others had no status, well, a professor from Imperial Capital University is enough status, right? Why are you still deleting comments?"

"Where are those people who were defending him before? Say something, don't just stay silent."

"Hurry up, we're waiting for a reply; where are the people cleaning up the mess?"

This was a total crushing; Professor Ma's students, friends, and fans all went invisible at this moment.

We don't know what you are talking about.

Things on the internet ferment really fast; before anyone knew it, Professor Ma's school, position, and such had all been dug up.

This had to do with his lack of attention to privacy protection when posting videos and messages, and also with his students turning on him.

So everyone knew, and they started tagging the school one after another, even though this school had never been heard of before.

Fang Dazhuang ignored this person; it could be said that after being directly crushed face-to-face on the internet, he had already suffered social death.

Not to mention that he had also been doxxed.

Human Flesh Search is illegal, and Fang Dazhuang would never do anything illegal, but if Professor Ma wanted to be pedantic, then Fang Dazhuang could let Zhou Xinran be his agent.

It can be said that this method of hiring people to muddy the waters of public opinion is really useless in front of Fang Dazhuang now.

Internet Water Armies are hard to find, and big influencers with status are even less willing to wade into these muddy waters.

So he could only let the Company's legal department prepare well for this Litigation, and on the other hand, step up Mediation with others.

However, the work was really hard to do, especially since within a few days, some legal staff were already resigning.

When asked for the reason, they just said the pressure of working here was too high...

In such a harmonious atmosphere, in a rental apartment in Hanxi Province, Wu Xing, an ordinary office worker in reality, hung up the phone and looked at the text message in front of him; although he knew that having done that, given A Yi's style, he would definitely sue him.

But as an ordinary person, he was still very panicked after receiving an Indictment and getting a call from the Court.

After all, if we are usually well-behaved, we won't even receive a Lawyer's Letter.

Forcing himself to tell himself not to be afraid, that the contract was invalid, he hurriedly dialed the number for Qiyi Company.

"What? You can't represent me in the Lawsuit? Then what should I do now!"

Wu Xing felt like he had been scammed, but Jiang Xinyan on the phone was explaining.

It was the same principle: the Lawyer profession is very special; one cannot practice independently outside of institutions like law firms, as this violates the Lawyer Law.

Likewise, for a Company's legal staff, you usually handle the internal legal affairs of the Company; you can represent the Company in a Lawsuit because the Company can authorize you, but you cannot directly represent a person who has no relationship with the Company in a Lawsuit.

That does not comply with legal provisions.

However, for this kind of situation, a large company like Qiyi Company has plenty of ways; the Company has external Lawyers, it's very simple.

Knowing this, Wu Xing calmed down a little; if Qiyi Company abandoned him directly, he would have to turn against them.

The Lawsuits on both sides were proceeding in full swing; at the Beijing Internet Court, the second batch of Lawsuits had already passed review, and Qiyi Company found that they were having a bit of trouble handling it.

Because there were really too many people...

At this moment, the minds of the leaders at Qiyi Company were probably in chaos; a large number of paid members is a good thing, but at this moment, they were wishing they could have fewer of these people.

However, no matter how much they dragged it out, at the Beijing Internet Court, the first batch of cases was already about to be tried.

Anyone who knows even a little about large-scale Litigation actually knows that for this kind of Litigation, you only need to look at the first batch of cases, or rather, the few cases in the first batch that are to be tried first.

Generally speaking, for this kind of situation, the Court will try several at once in one hearing.

As long as they pass judgment, then barring any accidents, the subsequent judgments will most likely be copy-pasted...

Unless new circumstances arise.

Otherwise, the case facts are all the same, so they will definitely save judicial resources where they can.

Then, the civil court responsible for the trial at the Beijing Internet Court had already received an order: this trial would be live-streamed!

A live-streamed trial is a major measure in the current judicial field, the purpose of which is to let people who don't understand the law understand it a little; you see, if you end up standing there, that is how the process goes.

Of course, everything is live-streamed these days, such as traffic police live-streaming enforcement; in short, this matter is definitely a good thing, and it is also a manifestation of Public Opinion Supervision of the judiciary.

Whether it is live-streamed or not doesn't actually have that much of an impact on the judge; after all, daily trials, except for some special cases, are public, meaning the kind that anyone can go and watch.

But this case was indeed very important; in any case, during this period, the civil judges at the Internet Court had studied the Standard Clause of Qiyi Company until they were going bald.

As for which cases will be broadcast live, that depends on the situation; generally speaking, the People's Court may choose to live-stream or record public trials of cases that have high public attention, significant social impact, and educational value for legal publicity.

This case perfectly fits these criteria, and that group of Plaintiffs are all people who pay attention.

Once the news of the live-streamed trial spread, it made those onlookers excited.

In fact, there are quite a lot of live-streamed trials now, it's just that not many people watch them; after all, many people only have a three-minute attention span, and the law itself is actually quite dry and boring.

What they are willing to watch is interesting drama, not monotonous court trials.

But this time is different, because of the various flashy maneuvers from both sides, this trial has been hyped up!

The time is three days later, at nine o'clock in the morning, the court will open on time; you only need to register and log in to the website to watch the live stream.

Because it is an Internet Court, the trial is conducted online, which makes Lawyer Fang a bit regretful; after all, for things like debates, it feels better to argue face-to-face with the other party.

Through a computer screen, it is different from a real, head-on confrontation.

In such an atmosphere, three days later arrived very quickly.

Yuan Jie was waiting in front of her computer early; as someone who does live streaming, she had never been this interested in another live stream before.

Zhou Yi's other viewers were doing the same thing, which surprised their families, especially Monizhongwudi, who usually opened live streams to watch dancing, so why was he watching a court trial today?

Needless to say, Zhou Yi's Company; there was no work today, so everyone watched the live stream first.

At Old Place Cafe, Chu Lan was also watching on her laptop; she also wanted to know the outcome of this case.

The live stream started, and one could see the computer screen divided into several small sections, with one for the Presiding Judge, one for the Plaintiff's agent, and one for the Defendant's agent.

Yuan Jie could see Lawyer Fang sitting there, and there seemed to be someone next to him, though she didn't know who it was; it should be Zhou Yi, as he and Lawyer Fang are inseparable.

The Presiding Judge announced the opening of the court!

The stages of presenting evidence and cross-examination were easy enough; like Yuan Jie, she had been cramming relevant legal knowledge during this time, so she could still understand it.

The things being said were nothing more than "authenticity acknowledged, but relevance not acknowledged," or "this evidence is irrelevant to this case," and the like.

Anyway, it made the viewers sleepy, with all sorts of evidence that seemed completely irrelevant to outsiders being brought out.

Finally, it reached the Court Debate that everyone was very interested in, and Qiyi Company started nitpicking.

For example, Qiyi Company claimed that the scope of "Hot Drama Early Access" for Golden Members was satellite TV hit dramas and high-quality self-produced dramas from Qiyi; alright, then they could nitpick, saying the dramas we are now adopting Paid Advanced On-Demand for are neither of these two types.

The former meaning refers to what we call main dramas, which are satellite TV dramas, and the latter refers to web dramas.

But no matter how they argued, it was useless, because Lawyer Fang had already produced evidence that when this drama was first promoted, Qiyi Company promoted it as "Qiyi Self-Produced"...

Never mind what the situation is behind the scenes, what your specific investment amount is, or what kind of relationship you have with the drama's production team—we don't know these things, and it's impossible for us to know.

We only know you promoted it that way, and that's enough.

This live stream didn't have a bullet chat, but it had real-time comments.

Looking at the comments, one could tell that many people were actually very unhappy with this kind of sophistry.

And the core dispute of this case lies in what exactly Qiyi Company's "Hot Drama Early Access" means.

Qiyi's side believed that the meaning of Hot Drama Early Access is that you get to watch it earlier than people who don't have a membership!

And they produced evidence to prove that the Plaintiff could indeed watch a few episodes earlier than those who didn't have a membership.

However, Lawyer Fang believed that the fifty-three-character promotional content of Hot Drama Early Access was telling him that he could watch the finale early.

And he quickly brought up the relevant provisions in the Civil Code: if a Standard Clause has two or more interpretations, the interpretation unfavorable to the party providing the Standard Clause shall be adopted.

From the beginning of the Court Debate, the crowd of onlookers outside the court discovered that Lawyer Fang had completely grasped the rhythm.

It could be said that he was leading the lawyers from Qiyi Company by the nose, debating those provisions of the Standard Clause from beginning to end!

By the end, the Qiyi Company side had absolutely no power to fight back.

Taking facts as the basis and the law as the criterion—many people didn't quite understand this sentence before, but after watching this debate, they had some understanding.

Facts: first, you have to clarify the facts; then, you have to clarify which law applies to these facts and why that law applies.

Finally, the Presiding Judge announced a recess, and Lawyer Fang started drinking water, but Yuan Jie and the others could clearly see that Lawyer Fang's face was very unhappy.

Internet trial, it affects performance; unable to see the real person on the other side, Lawyer Fang felt his combat effectiveness dropped by more than half.

Half an hour later, the Presiding Judge returned and delivered the verdict in court!

This case indeed had a huge impact, but... the facts and the application of the law were not that difficult.

Qiyi Company committed a Tort and must compensate the Plaintiff for corresponding losses; this part of the compensation was actually not much, because it was all determined based on the money spent when opening the membership.

The big part was actually the Notarization Fee!

This was the big expense for Zhou Yi, a full 1,500 yuan, which was also to be borne by Qiyi Company.

There were six cases in total, and they wouldn't read the judgments one by one because they were all the same.

Seeing this result, although everyone had confidence in Lawyer Fang, they still breathed a sigh of relief.

Won, must have a good meal today!

In the Imperial Capital, Chairman Wang, who had finished watching the live-streamed trial, started rubbing his temples; they lost, lost without any surprise, and even their Legal Department looked like they were throwing the game...

He made a phone call to the head of the Legal Department.

"Is that how reality is? You mean our legal team is just that incompetent, right?"

It wasn't that he didn't understand, but seeing the case lost and thinking about the subsequent impact, he felt anxious inside.

The Department Manager of the Legal Department on the other end said helplessly: "Wang Zong, there's really no way, we already tried our best."

The company's legal team would actually review modifications to Standard Clauses and provide legal risk warnings, but... no one listened.

This is the current situation for many company legal departments; they provide a lot of suggestions from a legal perspective, but if the company can make more money by doing it that way, who treats the legal team as people?

Then, when they get sued, they start looking for the legal team again; anyway, no matter what, it's always your problem...

Hanging up the phone, there was silence in the office; it could be expected that even if they filed an Appeal, there would basically be no major changes, and the company was really going to suffer a major blow this time.

Who could have thought that just because of one Paid Advanced On-Demand, and just because of a few words with that Zhou Yi, it would directly lead to such an outcome.

If only we had known... sigh, it's a pity there are no "ifs."

But are we just going to admit defeat like this?

A vice president nearby picked up the phone to make a contact, then said: "Wang Zong, there are still people willing to publish some reports to speak for us, but the hope is not very high."

Public opinion is really difficult; only after experiencing this Lawsuit did we realize that everyone has truly hated them for a long time.

Wang Zong was just about to say something when someone else said: "Don't even think about it, the official media has issued an article."

The one that issued the article this time is People's Daily, which was called a "second-rate newspaper" by a great man; it issued a commentary directly, face-to-face and head-on!

"Wasting the audience's trust will surely lead to self-destruction!"

Moreover, it named them directly at the beginning, stating that this so-called paid model is blatantly infringing on the rights and interests of consumers.

It also offered advice, stating that only by prioritizing the rights and experience of users can the development of a platform be "advanced."

It also explained that the large-scale Litigation initiated by Anchor A Yi has been approved by so many people, which in itself already indicates the public's feelings toward this charging model!

Of course, the most severe sentence was still the one in the headline, which made the senior management of Qiyi Company feel a chill in their hearts.

At the same time, the Beijing Consumers Association stated that if things continue like this, they will conduct relevant Public Interest Litigation!

It came too fast, as if these media outlets and these organizations had all discussed it, opening fire collectively after the Court verdict!

If it were just a Court verdict, there would actually still be room to maneuver, and there would be plenty of ways to drag it out.

But under these circumstances, the company from top to bottom knows very well what it represents.

After a long silence, Chairman Wang spoke: "How about... we don't Appeal."

Compensating fully according to legal regulations will indeed hurt our foundation, but the previous Paid Advanced On-Demand really made no small amount of money; the turnover in one night was I don't know how many times more than before.

Doing this really can make money, it's just a pity...

If you open up your perspective a bit, Chengdu, Ah Huang, Xiao Lan, Xiao Di, and Bing Mou, these have all admitted defeat; them Qiyi admitting defeat, it seems like it's nothing.

There has already been a Warning; if you don't take this seriously, then you will be taken seriously!

In Jingzhou, after the verdict was out, Fang Dazhuang directly called for Zhou Xinran.

"You're leaving it all to me? Teacher Fang, wouldn't that be a bit rash..."

"Small matter, go prepare. Let me tell you, this case is really simple; I'd better go argue with those people who say my contract is invalid."

Zhou Xinran nodded, turned around, and went back to her office to pull an all-nighter; Fang Dazhuang thinks it's simple, but she might not.

Everyone knows how this case will be judged, but if the other party suddenly submits new evidence and the verdict changes, then who would be embarrassed, they know in their hearts.

Zhou Xinran always thinks a lot, so she is very worried about this situation occurring.

All-nighter, must pull an all-nighter!

Fang Dazhuang called her to go drink with Zhou Yi, but she refused; not going, how could one go drinking at a time like this!

No choice, Fang Mouren and Zhou Mouren could only go by themselves, and they had a great night.

Time had already reached the next morning; Fang Dazhuang always comes to the law firm very early.

Rubbing his eyes as he went inside, he saw that the office of a certain rookie still had the lights on.

He went in to take a look and found Zhou Xinran sleeping soundly on the desk, with a pile of materials in front of her.

Not bad, the effort is indeed sufficient; this is also one of the reasons why Fang Dazhuang took her as a disciple before.

After all, every teacher actually likes hardworking students.

"Xinran, Xinran?" Fang Dazhuang called out.

Zhou Xinran opened her eyes in a daze, her expression extremely bewildered: "Ah? Teacher Fang? Is it time for the court session?"

"You, there's no need to stay up all night, really."

Zhou Xinran reacted slightly: "Teacher Fang, I'm not you; if such a good situation ends up flipping, then it's your face that will be lost."

"No, I'm not saying you shouldn't work hard; I'm saying... Qiyi Company has released a statement, stopping Paid Advanced On-Demand, and will conduct corresponding Mediation with all parties; whatever can be compensated will be compensated."

What? Zhou Xinran was stunned.

Fang Dazhuang handed over the phone he had already prepared: "I wouldn't lie to you."

Zhou Xinran quickly saw the statement, stamped with the official seal; it definitely wasn't fake.

Looking up at the sky, you actually chickened out? Weren't you going to stand tall? How did you chicken out, ah ah ah ah!

Today's thirst-quenching chapter, a large chapter of nearly six thousand words; the owed updates are back to one hundred and four thousand words.

The morning's chapter was indeed filler; even I feel it's flooded like a mountain now, just some audience comments, no plot progress, very sorry.

Thanks to Yongheng Tianyin, Feimaowuyu, Junlan 2333, Xiao Shufu, Luohuajingte, wfei, thanks to the brothers for the tips, thank you.

(End of this chapter)