Much ado about TV plagiarism

Popular Internet writer Lai Bao denounced the high audience rating TV drama Love Apartment 3 on his weibo or micro blog on Aug 4 for using a number of his original jokes from his books without authorization. As expected, it drew wide public attention.

In less than 24 hours, the TV drama group tendered a public apology on its official weibo for using Lai's original jokes. It said it would like to pay for all of Lai's original pieces it had used in the show. Lai accepted the apology and said what he wants is to be recognized as the author of the contents rather than money. Famous playwright Ning Caishen went a step further and praised the group for "showing respect to network copyright".

Thanks to the quick response and excellent public relations strategy, a hit play's plagiarism scandal was resolved and even turned into a promotion for the show. But the "happy ending" bears a closer analysis.