Chapter 940 Copyright
"Do you want the copyright of the name Xiaolingtong?" Ye Yonglie raised his hand and pushed his glasses on the bridge of his nose, looking puzzled.
"Yes." Song Chaoyuan nodded, then took out a business card from his pocket and handed it over.
Ye Yonglie took the business card and took a look at it. He found that the names of Shenghua Capital and Shenghua Group were written on it. He was a little confused for a moment.
"Mr. Song, you are not...?"
"Oh, the advertising company is a subsidiary of Shenghua Group, and the film and television company is a cooperative company of Shenghua. The main persons in charge are my wife and a few friends. Shenghua Capital is the main controlling shareholder of Shenghua Group. Shenghua Group is a listed company in Hong Kong. It owns Shenghua Communications, Shenghua Electric, Shenghua Computer, Shenghua Real Estate, Shenghua Trade, Si Te (China) Food Company, Jinling Nandu Food Company and other enterprises in China..."
Song Chaoyuan gave Mr. Ye Yonglie a general introduction to Shenghua's situation. After listening to Song Yuanchao's introduction, Ye Yonglie suddenly realized.
"Oh, it's Shenghua. I've heard of it. Last month my child gave me a Shenghua VCD. Is it a product of your company?"
"Yes, this is the brand of our Shenghua subsidiary."
Ye Yonglie smiled. He now understood Song Yuanchao's intention and asked Song Yuanchao if he wanted to use the name "Xiaolingtong" as the name of his product.
Song Chaoyuan nodded and said yes, and told Mr. Ye Yonglie that he came to him today to discuss the copyright of Xiaolingtong, and hoped that Mr. Ye Yonglie could sell the copyright of Xiaolingtong to Shenghua. Of course, Shenghua was willing to pay for it, and as for how much, Mr. Ye Yonglie was welcome to name his price.
After listening to Song Yuanchao's words, Ye Yonglie thought for a moment and smiled, "You were introduced by Lao Cao, and I have heard of your company. In recent years, your advertising company and film and television company have done well, and the cooperation with the production studio has also benefited the studio a lot. I still hold a position in the production studio. After all, we are not outsiders. Besides, this is not a big deal. It's just the name of a character in a novel. You can just use it. Why bother talking about money?"
"That won't do!" Song Chaoyuan hurriedly shook his head: "Mr. Ye, I appreciate your kindness, but it is really inappropriate to take your copyright for free. Moreover, as the copyright owner, if you let our company use it without spending a penny, it would be a disrespect to you."
"How can there be such a statement?" Ye Yonglie waved his hand and smiled, "If you want to adapt the work, I will discuss the copyright transfer with you without you even mentioning it. But now you just need a name for a little PHS, so what does that matter? Besides, there are no restrictions on the use of fiction character names in China at present, just like ordinary names. For example, if my name is Ye Yonglie and your name is Song Yuanchao, are people not allowed to call me by these two names? If so, isn't that too overbearing?"
At this point, Mr. Ye Yonglie burst into laughter, seemingly not caring about the matter at all. However, what he said was not without reason. After all, the current laws and regulations on copyright are still imperfect, especially the copyright of novel names is even more vague. In addition, Mr. Ye Yonglie is a literati, so he naturally has the nobleness and pride of a literati, and he doesn't care about such a small matter at all.
However, despite Mr. Ye Yonglie's generosity, Song Chaoyuan could not directly accept his kindness. After all, using someone else's copyright for free was not appropriate from both a personal and commercial perspective. Moreover, Song Chaoyuan also considered the possible disputes that might arise from using the copyright for free. For long-term considerations, Song Chaoyuan still proposed to buy the copyright of Xiaolingtong with money.
Seeing that Song Yuanchao insisted on purchasing the copyright, Mr. Ye Yonglie thought about it and offered a price to Song Yuanchao. After hearing Mr. Ye Yonglie's offer, Song Yuanchao was at a loss whether to laugh or cry.
300 yuan for copyright transfer? This price is not high, it is simply too low. How is this different from giving it away for free? Although Song Chaoyuan is a businessman, he is different from ordinary businessmen. If he were another businessman, he would probably agree directly when he heard that Mr. Ye Yonglie wanted to give him the copyright, and at most say some nice words of thanks.
But Song Chaoyuan would not do this. Mr. Ye Yonglie was a scholar and elder he respected. Although Mr. Ye Yonglie was very famous, his living conditions in recent years were not as good as his fame. On the contrary, Mr. Ye Yonglie, who received a fixed salary, did not have much savings.
Logically speaking, an author like him should not be short of money. Some well-known authors in later generations can earn very high annual incomes. Mr. Ye Yonglie became famous very early. As early as 1961, "100,000 Whys", of which Mr. Ye Yonglie was the main author and editor, became a best-seller in China. This popular science book printed more than 5 million copies when it was first published, and was later reprinted. By 2014, there were 6 editions in total, with a total circulation of an astonishing 100 million copies.
With just this set of popular science books, if it was published abroad or a dozen years later, Mr. Ye Yonglie could easily become a billionaire with the copyright share. Moreover, Mr. Ye Yonglie's works are not only "100,000 Whys", he also has many other popular science, science fiction, biographies, novels and other works. He is a very prolific and excellent writer, and also a famous writer in China.
Unfortunately, Mr. Ye Yonglie's peak writing period has passed. Although he has not put down his pen at the age of over 50, his energy is no longer as high as when he was young. The output and influence of his works have gradually declined over the years.
In the past, domestic writers did not have copyrights, and they only received royalties. The copyright of the works was in the hands of the publishing house or literary society, and even if the works were reprinted, they were still calculated according to the royalties.
This situation only changed a few years ago. When it comes to the changes in royalties and copyright, one person is indispensable, and that person is Wang Shuo, whom Song Chaoyuan is familiar with. It was because of Wang Shuo's strong request that the copyright that had been cancelled for a long time was restored, thus changing the writer's income from the previous royalties to the copyright system, allowing subsequent writers to benefit greatly from copyright.
Therefore, Mr. Ye Yonglie had been living on his royalties and salary income. Although these incomes were much better than those of ordinary people, they were far from what writers could earn after the restoration of the copyright system. In addition, as a writer, his daily expenses were not small. Just looking at the books in Mr. Ye Yonglie's room, you can see that he spent most of his income on this. Otherwise, he would not have lived in a small house assigned by his company until two years ago when he reluctantly paid for the current house.
"Mr. Ye, 300 yuan is really not appropriate." Song Chaoyuan shook his head and refused. Without waiting for Mr. Ye Yonglie to speak, he said directly: "How about this, regarding the copyright of the name Xiaolingtong, I will purchase it on behalf of the company for 50,000 yuan. What do you think?"
"50,000 yuan? This... this won't do. This is too much money!" Mr. Ye Yonglie refused without even thinking. It's just a name. Why would he need so much money? Not to mention buying a name, even if the Shanghai Film Studio adapted one of his works a few years ago, the copyright fee was only more than 200 yuan.
Although this happened in the past, even now, the copyright of a work is only a few thousand yuan at most, and Mr. Ye Yonglie, as a writer, knows this very well. Moreover, what Song Yuanchao wants is not a work, but just the name of a character in the work. How can it be worth so much money?
For a moment, Mr. Ye Yonglie shook his head like a rattle, refusing to agree to anything and insisting on selling it at the previous price of 300 yuan. Of course, Song Chaoyuan was unwilling to take advantage of Mr. Ye Yonglie and immediately started "bargaining" with him.
It's quite funny to say, other people bargain to get a lower price, but the two of them bargained in the hope that the other party would follow their own ideas, one wanted to sell at a low price, and the other wanted to buy at a high price, and after talking for a long time, no one could convince the other.
In the end, Song Chaoyuan felt helpless. He was helpless looking at the stubborn Mr. Ye Yonglie. Mr. Ye Yonglie even said that if Song Chaoyuan insisted on purchasing the copyright at such a high price, he would not sell it. This really made Song Chaoyuan laugh and cry.
Song Yuanchao was so moved that he didn't know how to solve this problem. He thought about it and said to Mr. Ye Yonglie, "Mr. Ye, I have a suggestion. Do you think it will work?"
"Don't talk to me about 50,000 yuan anymore. Let alone 50,000 yuan, even if it's 10,000 yuan, this copyright is not worth anything. Xiao Song, I know you mean well, but this is not the way to do it. If you insist, I will send you away!" Mr. Ye Yonglie said to Song Chaoyuan very seriously.
Song Chaoyuan nodded repeatedly and said, "How about this, Mr. Ye, I understand your idea. In this case, can we operate according to the current copyright benefit ratio?"
“What is the percentage of copyright benefits?”
"Yes!" Song Chaoyuan explained, "You are a scholar, you should know that the current publishing of works is different from before. In the past, the remuneration and royalties for publishing works were paid, but now it is a copyright system, that is to say, according to the copyright benefit ratio, the author will get a part of the copyright income according to the number of publications. You should know this better than me, right?"
"Well, I know this. This is an improvement and it is also a good thing for the author." Mr. Ye Yonglie nodded.
Song Chaoyuan continued : "Since the current industry rules have changed, I think our cooperation can also be carried out according to this model."
"Please tell me in detail." Hearing this, Mr. Ye Yonglie became interested.
Song Chaoyuan told Mr. Ye Yonglie that currently everyone has different views on the amount of copyright transfer, which is the main disagreement. In this case, this problem should be solved according to the income from publishing copyright. That is to say, Mr. Ye Yonglie authorized the copyright of Xiaolingtong to Shenghua. Shenghua gave Mr. Ye Yonglie a certain copyright fee while using the copyright of Xiaolingtong. This fee was divided into two parts as agreed. One part was the copyright fee for the use of the company name, and this copyright fee was determined according to the 300 yuan authorization just proposed by Mr. Ye Yonglie.
The other part is the copyright royalties for future products. This fee is calculated based on the production and sales volume of the products. Mr. Ye Yonglie will receive a certain amount of royalties for every product produced and sold.
