Rebirth of Siheyuan starts in the 1980s

"How can overseas laws control our inland people?"

When he first heard what the other party said, Cao Zhiqiang was stunned, and then he said smoothly: "How can the sword of the previous dynasty kill the officials of this dynasty?"

Zhao Shouwen was also stunned for a moment, and then nodded: "I think it's about the same meaning."

Cao Zhiqiang touched his chin: "If I'm not mistaken, you are trying to say that overseas copyright laws cannot control us inland, so we pirate their books inland and there is nothing they can do to us?"

"That's right." Zhao Shouwen said.

"We currently do not have relevant copyright laws in our country, so if we can learn from each other, as long as the original author's signature is not mistaken, and we don't blatantly claim that other people's works were written by ourselves, then it will be good.

Just like Mr. Jin Yong, he is from Xiangjiang. His novels are all overseas versions in traditional Chinese characters and have never been officially released in the mainland.

If we change his traditional Chinese novel to simplified Chinese and publish it in mainland China, as long as the author's name still reads him, there will be no problem.

This is better than changing the title of the book and the name of the author, but the content is exactly the same.

In this way, we are equivalent to making Mr. Jin Yong famous. If he knows about it, he will have to thank us.

In fact, this situation is similar to when we translate foreign masterpieces and then publish them domestically.

If you feel sorry for it, we can add a "translation", wouldn't that be enough?"

"Translated version?" Cao Zhiqiang said amusedly, "Isn't this self-deception?"

"How can this be self-deception? Translating traditional Chinese characters into simplified Chinese is actually a translation."

Zhao Shouwen said: "And general manager, in fact, many big publishing houses in the south have already done this.

It's just that the publishing houses in the north are still arrogant and look down on martial arts novels for the time being.

But I believe that sooner or later they will learn from those publishing houses in the south and publish martial arts novels sooner or later. After all, this is really profitable.

In other words, if we don’t publish Hong Kong’s martial arts novels, other publishing houses will do it.

That being the case, why don't we do it?

At least, publishing these works that have been tested by the market and making sure profits is not better than publishing the content ourselves?"

After listening to Zhao Shouwen's words, Cao Zhiqiang did not reply immediately, but touched his chin and fell into deep thought.

It's not that Cao Zhiqiang agreed with the other party's statement, but that he suddenly remembered the issue about Jin Yong's novels.

Indeed, he knew in his previous life that there were not only three versions of Jin Yong's novels, but actually countless versions.

However, there are indeed three versions recognized by Jin Yong himself, namely the serialized version, the revised version and the newly revised version.

But in fact, in the mainland of the 1980s, there were countless versions of Jin Yong's novels, but they were basically pirated copies without Jin Yong's authorization.

However, what is interesting is that in the inland version of the 1980s, the publishing houses that pirated Jin Yong's novels were not small workshops, but regular publishing houses.

For example, in his previous life, Cao Zhiqiang saw many Jin Yong novels published by regular publishing houses on the used book website.

Like Fujian People's Publishing House, Jilin Publishing House, Jiangxi People's Publishing House, Lujiang Publishing House, Wutaishan Publishing House...it seems that there are at least dozens of regular publishing houses that have published Jin Yong's novels.

Not only Jin Yong's novels, but also other novels such as Gu Long, Liang Yusheng, and Wo Longsheng, there were also a large number of inland versions at that time, and they were all published by regular publishing houses.

In other words, throughout the 1980s, piracy of martial arts novels from Hong Kong and Taiwan was really not a problem, and the publishing houses that pirated these works were all regular publishing houses.

The quality of books from regular publishing houses is better, the distribution channels are wider, and the key prices are very favorable. How does your private small black-hearted workshop compare?

Because Cao Zhiqiang remembers that various versions of martial arts novels from Hong Kong and Taiwan in the 1980s were very affordable. A set of books was only priced at about three yuan. Even Jin Yong's Shooting Withered was only five or six yuan a set.

Of course, those were prices after 1984.

Because in October 1984, the country promulgated the "Decision on Economic Structural Reform", which relaxed a large number of controls, and a wave of business for all people began to rise.

It was at that time that publishing houses loosened more controls and completely changed to a self-financing policy, so many publishing houses began to let themselves go in order to make money.

Because of this, for some pirated books from the 1980s, if you look carefully at the date of publication, most of them appeared after October 1984. The reason is due to the policy of unbundling.

Before the policy was completely unbundled in 1984, most publishing houses were still relying on the financial system, earning more and less, not getting much benefit themselves, and their reputations were not good, so they lacked the awareness to pirate Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts novels.

For example, the famous "Wulin" magazine was the first magazine to serialize Jin Yong's works in mainland China. It started serializing the works of Jin Yong as early as 1981, and became famous because of it, and its circulation volume exploded instantly.

Just because of the serialization, "Martial Arts" has gone from an unknown small magazine to a large magazine with monthly sales of over three million.

But since the situation was so good, why did he stop serializing the series later and stop updating it himself?

It was not Mr. Jin Yong who issued a copyright warning to that magazine.

It was the relevant people from the local authorities who felt that piracy of Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts novels was too embarrassing, or could not stand the situation, and issued a "refined and easy-going" advice to the "Wulin" magazine, so "Wulin" stopped publishing.

withered.

"Wulin" magazine is from Guangzhou, and it is a southern magazine that has always been relatively open-minded.

Even the magazines in the south are like this, and it is even more conceivable that the publishers and magazines in the north are like this.

But "Martial Arts" finally opened an opening, allowing Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts novels to be known to the majority of mainland people.

And when there is a market, there is naturally demand.

So later, some relatively open, regular publishing houses in the South began to secretly publish pirated martial arts novels, but the circulation was not large.

Because of this, talents are rare and valuable. A set of Legend of the Heroes of the Archer would be worth buying for four ten dollars at this time.

It was not until 1984, when pirated martial arts novels were everywhere, that prices were instantly suppressed.

But it is precisely because of this that pirated copies of Jin Yong's novels before 1984 were sold at very high prices in the second-hand book market. Because they were small in quantity and had great commemorative significance, they became scarce, similar to monkey tickets.

That is to say, throughout the 1980s, due to the lack of domestic copyright awareness, domestic regular publishing houses plagiarized overseas literary works without any restrictions at all. This was similar to the situation with Indian generic drugs, and even more direct and crude.

This phenomenon seems to have changed only after the 1990s when domestic copyright laws were officially promulgated.

At that time, major formal publishing houses will no longer engage in piracy due to legal and policy restrictions, and only then will there be room for private workshops to survive.

It is precisely because of this that the quality of pirated books after the 1990s is obviously not as good as the pirated books in the 1980s.

The reason is that the pirated books in the 1980s were all produced by regular publishing houses.

Thinking of this, Cao Zhiqiang suddenly realized why there were so few low-quality pirated books in this period.

It turns out that it was not that ordinary people at this time were more copyright-conscious and only bought genuine books, but that private booksellers were unable to compete with regular publishing houses because genuine books were cheap and of good quality.

Regular publishing houses have better printing equipment, better typesetting, better illustrations, better quality books, and extremely cheap prices.

In addition, formal publishing houses have formal distribution channels and have greater bargaining power, so at the same price, formal publishing houses have higher profits.

On the other hand, those three-no publishers without formal licenses have no distribution channels, or even if they find distribution channels, their bargaining power is very low, so in order to make money, they can only focus on the quality of their books.

The quality of the books is poor and the price is not cheap, so people will naturally vote for genuine books with their feet.

They all pirate, so how can private pirates compete with regular publishing houses?

Wait, it seems that the crux of the problem is not here.

Thinking of this, Cao Zhiqiang suddenly had an idea.

Yes, the crux of the problem is indeed not whether it is right to pirate overseas novels, but the issue of authorship.

There is no copyright law at all in China at this time, and there is no awareness that piracy is wrong. There is appropriationism everywhere.

The key point is that these people who are playing with theism are still regular publishing houses!

These publishing houses want to engage in piracy, but they never care about the mood of the original author, nor do they only pirate overseas works. Domestic works can also be plagiarized and pirated.

For example, after traveling through Ba Jin's Torrent Trilogy, he has read at least eight versions from eight publishing houses. Can't all these publishing houses have signed contracts with Ba Jin and authorized them?

Thinking of this, Cao Zhiqiang suddenly looked at Yu Deli: "Lao Yu, do you still remember my collection of poems?"

"Collection of poems?" Yu Deli was stunned, "The one with the furthest distance in the world?"

"Yes." Cao Zhiqiang nodded.

"Of course I remember." Yu Deli said, "What's wrong?"

Cao Zhiqiang said: "Nothing, I just want to ask you, my poetry collection is signed with the Writer's Publishing House, and theoretically it can only be published by the Writer's Publishing House.

So what if another publishing house, such as ours, directly pirates the content of that poetry collection and distributes it without negotiating the copyright with me, the original author, and the writer's publishing house, is that okay?"

Yu Deli smiled: "If I pirate your poetry collection and then publish it myself, it is certainly feasible in theory, but generally speaking, it won't be possible for the time being."

"Why?" Cao Zhiqiang asked.

"Because people are so sophisticated." Yu Deli smiled, "Writer's Publishing House is a large publishing house, one of the top publishing houses in China, and it is a publishing house in the capital, so it is naturally superior to others.

Therefore, according to the rules, for works published by such a large publishing house, other publishing houses cannot immediately follow suit and publish them.

Even if they think your poetry collection is good and want to re-publish it..."

"Piracy!" Cao Zhiqiang immediately added.

"Yes, piracy." Yu Deli nodded, "Even if other publishing houses want to pirate your poetry collection, they will have to wait a month before doing so.

This is an industry rule and a sign of respect for big publishing houses.

It is precisely because of this that after the Writer's Publishing House released your book and it became a hit, it accelerated the pace and increased the number of reprints, just to gain more time and use the quantity to compete with pirated books.

Because once a month has passed, other publishing houses can pirate your poetry collection at will, and the writer's publishing house can no longer monopolize the profits of this book, and can no longer continue to eat alone.

If you don’t believe it, you can go to Xinhua Bookstore in two days and you will definitely see new editions of poetry collections published by other publishing houses.”

"Other publishers pirated my collection of poems and sold them. Can I ask for the copyright fees?" Cao Zhiqiang asked.

"This is definitely not possible." Yu Deli smiled and shook his head.

Cao Zhiqiang nodded, and then asked: "What if there is a publishing house that doesn't follow the rules?

Take Writers Publishing House, for example. Less than a month after they published that poetry collection, why are there other publishers pirated my poetry collection?"

"That means you don't follow the business rules." Yu Deli said, "If you don't follow the business rules, theoretically you can't do anything to others, but this is not giving face to the writer and publisher.

The Writer's Publishing House is a large publisher with a wide range of people, especially the relationship with the Xinhua Bookstore Head Office.

Therefore, if there are other publishing houses that do not follow the rules and do not give honor to the author's publishing house, they can use other methods to cause trouble for that publishing house that does not follow the rules.

For example, if you let Xinhua Bookstore know the news and ask them to charge more for the other party's distribution fee, even if you ask for one or two more discounts, it will be enough for the other party to keep going.

In addition, you can also say hello to the other party's superior management department, such as the publishing bureau, and ask them to find trouble with that publishing house, and there are even more tricks.

So generally speaking, no one would dare not follow the rules and go against a big publishing house like Writers Press."

Cao Zhiqiang blinked: "Then suppose that I use the name of Hongguang Publishing House to publish my own poetry collection... I mean, what will happen if I publish my poetry collection that is still within the one-month protection period?"

"I'm afraid this is very troublesome." Yu Deli frowned.

"Because if you do this, you are breaking the rules and generally won't agree to it.

However, your situation is special and you must reprint within the one-month protection period. You can directly go out to have a meal with the president of the author's publishing house and discuss the matter at the dinner table.

As long as you can reach an agreement with the president of the writer's publishing house so that he doesn't pursue this matter, there should be no problem."

"I understand." Cao Zhiqiang nodded.

"In other words, if I publish and distribute the works I wrote myself, even if the original author is me and the copyright is in my hands, others can just pirate it and distribute it without discussing copyright with me, and I will still get the copyright.

Those pirate publishers can’t do anything about it, right?”

Yu Deli nodded: "For now, that's it.

However, according to industry regulations, if our publisher is the first to publish it, we can have a one-month exclusive distribution protection period.

Just make more money within this month, but it will be useless after the protection period."

"What a joke!" Cao Zhiqiang was angry.

"The book I worked so hard to write can be used by others to pirate and distribute it to make money a month later. I can't sue them. Is there any justice in this? Is there any law?"

Yu Deli was stunned for a moment, and then whispered: "Well, don't you still have one month of protection period? You will make enough money during this period, right?"

"How is this possible?" Cao Zhiqi continued angrily, "This is clearly plunder! Shameful plunder!"

Speaking of this, Cao Zhiqiang said angrily: "Is there any way to avoid it? Lao Yu?"

Yu Deli thought for a while: "Then I'm afraid the only way is to make good use of that month, increase the circulation, and strive to fill the book market within the one-month protection period, and the price must be low, so low that it is unprofitable for others.

This way there will be no piracy.”

"In this case, wouldn't I have to lose a lot?" Cao Zhiqiang frowned.

Yu Deli nodded: "I have to lose a little, but I have no choice but to do this."

"Forget it, forget it." Cao Zhiqiang waved his hand, "If that's the case, then everything I said before is invalid!"

"Voided?" Yu Deli frowned, "You mean..."

"I mean, my books are no longer out here! Not even my book "Shattered Void" is out!"

"Ma Dan, this is so deceptive!"

Indeed, Cao Zhiqiang suddenly thought that if this was the case, then the role of a publishing house he had worked so hard to create would be greatly reduced.

Because there is no copyright law in the country, anyone can pirate it openly, so the novel he worked so hard to create will only be able to live alone for a month.

From now on, others can just use it and pirate it to publish books.

Then, he is a legitimate publisher. One month after publishing a book, he still has to compete with pirates who pirate his own books for the market. The key is that you have nothing to do with the regular publishing houses that publish pirated books. This is unpleasant to think about.

How is this different from making wedding clothes for others?

After all, when they pirate books, they don't need to conceive the content at all, they can just copy it, don't take it too easy.

Thinking of this, Cao Zhiqiang stood up angrily: "Okay, today's team will be here first!"

But then, an angry Cao Zhiqiang directly called his name: "By the way, Lao Yu, and you, Yang Shouwen, you two come with me, everyone else, do what you should do, let's break up the meeting!"