Chapter 394

Put the matter with Mango on hold for now; as long as you make money and stay hot, someone will inevitably grow envious and try to snatch a share—it's unavoidable.

The only way out is to grow stronger, so that when others break the rules, they'll think twice.

Best to become so powerful that others follow your rules.

Just as "Dad Where Are We Going" remained wildly popular and continued to dominate the charts, Youku Tudou and multiple other online video platforms pirated the full episodes and clips of Season One of "Dad Where Are We Going."

Youku and Tudou have merged; now it's called that.

Both the web and mobile versions of Youku contain massive amounts of pirated content, with individual video views exceeding 100,000 and still rising.

This is clearly an infringement.

In response, Zhang Nan acted swiftly: he immediately contacted Youku Tudou's CEO Gu Yongqiang about the infringement, ordered the content removed, and notified other video platforms to do the same.

Youku is the leader; other online video platforms have far smaller audiences.

But Gu Yongqiang played both sides—he said "yes yes yes" while doing nothing behind the scenes, leaving all "Dad Where Are We Going" content up and repeatedly re-uploading pirated clips.

Other video platforms behaved the same way: one face in public, another in private.

This made Zhang Nan furious—how could these people be so shameless?

On November 1, Episode Four of "Dad Where Are We Going" broke its own viewership record, reaching 3.471%.

This figure equates to fifty million people watching simultaneously on their TV sets, not even counting other family members; if included, it equals over a hundred million watching at once.

"Zhen Huan Zhuan" was wildly popular, but this viewership is more than triple that of that drama.

Despite this explosion in popularity, Chang'e Video's traffic barely grew—it was being siphoned off by other platforms, because others didn't care about shame and watched Youku.

They all lost their shame too, starting to upload pirated content, since the tall ones were taking the hit, they'd just sip the broth.

This brazenness treats the Copyright Law like a joke.

It's normal—no single document can instantly change an entire industry's status quo; proper regulatory measures are needed, and clearly, current regulations are lax.

And many loopholes still exist.

On this very day, Chang'e Technology filed a lawsuit against Youku and other video platforms.

Zhang Nan, having reached his limit, issued a public statement: "Youku Tudou and other video platforms have severely infringed upon Chang'e Video's exclusive online broadcasting rights. We will submit litigation materials to court, demanding that the infringing companies immediately remove the content and compensate for losses."

Youku Tudou's official response: "As a popular program, some users have indeed uploaded it; we intercept many on the backend, but we've found users repeatedly and maliciously uploading using tactics like segmenting, changing usernames, and false titles. Upon discovery or complaint, we handle it immediately."

"Opposing piracy has always been Youku Tudou Group's principle. We welcome public oversight to jointly promote healthy industry development."

What this means is: it's the users' doing, not theirs—they've done their best to protect your copyright; blame the users if you must.

Other video platforms held the same stance: we tried hard, but we can't control what users upload.

This is just too shameless.

Suddenly, both sides clashed over copyright, major media outlets rapidly reposted reports, and even People's Daily Online covered the story.

The headline read: "Chang'e Sues Youku for Pirating 'Dad,' Youku Claims Users Maliciously Uploaded!"

Media frenzy erupted; netizens, of course, just watched the show—they couldn't join this high-level game, at most muttering: "Youku is trash."

It caused no real harm or insult; netizens' opinions only slightly affected the stars personally.

How to explain this? Fang Hong is simply too outstanding—so outstanding that people are jealous. He created this super-hit out of nowhere, posing a threat to others; who else would they pirate if not him?

There's a saying: when a tree towers above the forest, the wind must strike it down!

It's like if you invented a cultivation technique superior to others, they'd steal it, then use their own resources to pile up power and surpass you.

Isn't that how Tencent plays?

So today's internet is just a shoddy stage—there are no real rules.

Only after you're destroyed do they create rules.

And this lawsuit won't do much good—if Chang'e Technology sues, by the time it's over, "Dad Where Are We Going" will have already finished airing.

Any lawsuit preparation takes months; just dragging it out for years solves nothing—they're truly untouchable.

At Chang'e Technology's senior meeting, all partners were present; Zhang Nan asked: "What do we do?"

"No question—we must fight this battle." Fang Hong spoke with iron certainty.

"I agree with General Manager Fang—defending our interests can't be half-hearted; if we don't fight, everyone will come to freeload and take our fruit, leaving us helpless." Zhang Yiming agreed to fight.

If we don't fight, we can't rise—it's a stumbling block and also a stepping stone, like a peerless genius encountering challengers on the path to becoming an Emperor.

And this battle involves no Alibaba or Tencent—their own video platforms haven't even taken off yet.

Alibaba hasn't invested in Youku yet.

"Then how do we fight? Sue them?" Zhang Nan asked again.

"Of course not just suing—lawsuits are the least effective path; by the time you win, they've already leaped ahead—the time span is too long," Fang Hong said.

Even if you win and the full episodes are taken down, the clips can't be removed—the law is too weak.

And winning would only result in a small fine—hardly any real impact, unless the top authorities intervene.

"Then what do we do?" Zhang Nan looked at him, waiting for a plan.

Everyone else also stared at Fang Hong, waiting to see how he'd handle this.

"Use their own method against them," Fang Hong said.

"How?" This time it was Zhang Lidong who asked. "They upload our content without rules—we upload theirs without rules too. Copy all their content onto Bilibili for free viewing. They demand membership—we don't."

Fang Hong added: "But only on Bilibili. We still say it's users uploading—Chang'e Video must still uphold copyright."

Bilibili and Chang'e Video are fundamentally different—Bilibili is user-generated content, so everything can be blamed on users.

Chang'e Video is a production entity that creates content through formal contracts—this can't be shifted onto users.

This made the three of them exchange glances—it was ruthless.

Not to mention, Youku alone has far richer content than Chang'e and Bilibili combined—it's the merger of two platforms with nearly a decade of accumulation.

And over the past two years, all the hit web dramas like "Mao Pian" and "Wan Wan Mei Xiang Dao" were on Youku Tudou.

Plus, all DreamWorks animations, Disney films, 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate, Sony, Universal Pictures, and countless other domestic and international film and TV titles.

In the past, users were accustomed to uploading their original videos to Youku and Tudou.

So they accumulated massive amounts of content, and with strategic cooperation agreements signed with major domestic and international production companies, their content library was enormous.

Even CCTV provided content to them, though CCTV's content could not be copied.

Today, Youku's content library can rightly be called the undisputed leader.

Its daily active users also lead by a wide margin; those who boast of covering hundreds of millions of users monthly dare not reveal their daily active figures.

Only Youku dares to, making it the head of the heads.

Now Fang Hong wants to copy all their content onto Bilibili, which would effectively fill Bilibili to capacity without paying a cent.

"What's wrong? Are there technical difficulties?" Fang Hong noticed the surprise on their faces.

"No technical issues—we can just scrape their data. But wouldn't this be going too far? The consequences would be too severe. What if the production companies come after us? What if higher authorities get involved?" Zhang Yiming voiced his concerns.

They already had a top-tier technical expert specializing in nationwide data monitoring and scraping; technically, it wasn't a problem.

But they only pirated from him; now he wanted to pirate everything from them. What was originally a minor issue would become infinitely escalated, and they'd surely fight back hard.

"Don't fear disturbing this one or that one—when they came after us, they didn't care how big the incident got. Why should we?" Fang Hong was fearless.

If we're afraid of a Youku that Alibaba hasn't acquired, how will we ever face the harassment from BAT?

These three have taken shamelessness to extremes—they'll use any tactic. Rules apply only to the strong, not to the weak.

Let me put it this way: no company ever grew without breaking rules.

If you insist there are exceptions, it's only state-owned enterprises—but are state-owned enterprises even real companies?

Besides, this isn't unheard of. In his past life, 360's Kuai Video stole every single video from Bilibili, copying and pasting them directly.

Even the Up Masters' IDs and account passwords weren't spared—they were copied exactly as-is.

Who could you complain to? You couldn't even cry about it.

Of course, that was because Bilibili's technology was terrible and its encryption weak. This time, Bilibili will directly scrape their content but won't touch their IDs or anything else.

There's no revenue from uploading content on Youku—no payment based on view counts.

Only production teams with certain strength and partners receive payment, so ordinary people's interests aren't harmed.

The ones harmed are the production companies and their partners.

"I think we should be selective. If we do this, production companies and teams might develop a grudge against us, ruining our reputation in this industry—no one will want to provide content to us in the future," Zhang Nan voiced his concern.

If we copy everything, the scope of damage will be too broad; the entire industry's reputation could be ruined.

Currently, Chang'e Video is developing web dramas, especially comedic web dramas, which are their target.

After this, who would still trust them?

"Zhang Nan has a point—we shouldn't copy everything blindly. It wasn't our fault to begin with, but now it'll look like ours," Zhang Lidong said.

We were the righteous side, but now we'd become the unrighteous side.

"So what's your suggestion?" Fang Hong asked.

"Start with courtesy, then force. Be selective. First, copy their overseas partnership content—Western and American series, Korean dramas, and films. Leave domestic content untouched for now. If they still don't take it down, then copy the domestic exclusive dramas, but avoid copying segmented dramas—try not to offend anyone," Zhang Lidong suggested.

This way, we target only Youku and Tudou, not other content producers or partners.

As for the overseas ones? Let them die!

And precisely, Western and American series and Korean dramas have a loyal fanbase—fans who are extremely devoted.

They despise domestic dramas and insist on watching only foreign ones.

"Fine, do it your way," Fang Hong agreed.

If I'd acted according to my old habits with Huayi, I'd have crushed them completely—but the entertainment industry is shallow; the impact would've only affected Huayi.

The internet is deep water—it doesn't just affect platforms and shareholders' capital, but also content producers, with a vastly wider impact.

So we must be cautious. We only have a conflict with Youku, not with those content producers.

(End of Chapter)