Sex, Lies And The Right of Integrity of the Grimm Brothers' Heirs

The (Hong Kong ) Standard has an Agence France-Press article 'Sex-crazed dwarfs get pulled' about China Friendship Publishing Company and China Media Time that copied the erotic adaption of the Grimm brothers' Fairy Tales by the Japanese duo Kiryu Misao.

Three comments to this racy story:

1. The excuse of Yuan, a China Media Time official "We couldn't find the original German edition of Grimms' Fairy Tales, so we took Japanese editions as our references and translated those" sounds like a fairy tale. The original German edition of the Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm can be found here.

2. The Kiryu Misao adaptation is a copyrighted work that was unauthorisedly copied by China Friendship Publishing Company and China Media Time. The only reason why this comes to the light is that the books were mistakenly put on the children's bookshelves in some book shop(s).

3. Although the Grimm's Fairy Tales' copyright is expired, the work's moral rights continue eternally. So the Grimm brothers' heirs could file a lawsuit on this ground. See article 10 (4) Copyright Law: "the right of integrity, that is, the right to protect one's work against distortion and mutilation".

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Professor Llewelyn Asks Rhetorical Question About IPRs: "Too Important to Leave to the Lawyers?"

Tonight, IP Dragon is looking forward to attend the lecture of Professor David Llewelyn about the relevancy of Intellectual Property Rights for everybody.

"As Premier Wen Jiabao has been saying since 2004, world competition in the 21st century will revolve around competition for intellectual property rights (IPRs). But what are these rights, what can you do with them and how can we foster the innovation and creativity they protect?"

Professor David Llewelyn is Honorary Professor IPR Law at the University of Hong Kong and King’s College in London. He is also Deputy Chairman and External Director of the IP Academy in Singapore, and Partner and Head of IP at international law firm White & Case in its London office, and Chairman of IPR-X (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based IP strategy and investment company. Professor Llewelyn is one of the world’s leading experts on the protection and commercialisation of IPRs.

Professor Llewelyn is well known for his co-authorship of the book: Cornish, William & David Llewelyn, 'Intellectual Property: Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks and Allied Rights'.

See the blog 'Professor David Llewelyn Explains All IPRs in One Hour' about his lecture here.

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In South Korea Warner Bros First Releases Movies Online, Then Launches DVDs, China Could Be Next

In April 2006 IP Dragon blogged about Warner Brothers dropping its price substantially as a new business strategy in China, read more here. Now it is experimenting in South Korea with releasing movies online first and then launching the sale of DVDs. China could be next.

Mr Jacqui Cheng of Ars Technica wrote an article based on an article by Matthew Garrahan for the Financial Times:

"[..] China could be ripe for online distribution as more of the country gets access to broadband. Warner Bros. has already changed its distribution strategy in China by offering legit DVDs at prices comparable to what pirates charge for illicit discs. In fact, this is a tactic that Warner China (a joint venture between Warner Bros., China Film Group, and Hengdian Group), Paramount and Fox are trying as well."

Read Mr Cheng's article here.

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