Celebs fight back against rights infringements

Internet

According to Zhu Xiaolei, a lawyer with the Beijing Xingquan Law Firm, which specializes in dealing with personality rights disputes for celebrities, the internet's popularity means many company promo videos use celebrities' images and videos without permission.

"They spread widely and quickly via social media, so within a short time the infringers can receive big benefits, which makes them even more brazen," said Zhu, who launched the law firm in 2015 and has more than 200 star clients, including actors Fan Bingbing, Jimmy Lin and Huang Xiaoming.

In 2017, Doulang, a company in Xiamen, Fujian province, that provides event organizing services, posted a promo video on its social media account containing footage of Fan culled from a promotion she had done for another company.

Doulang substituted its own name on the logo on a microphone Fan was holding and on the background. Meanwhile, a voice actor imitated Fan on the soundtrack, giving viewers the impression she was a company spokesperson.

"We later discovered that some e-commerce platforms provide such video-editing services," said Zhu, who handled the case.

"It's worrying. These illegal activities disturb the endorsement market-solving the issue will require police investigations and crackdowns."

In recent years, the legal awareness of celebrities has been rising and many are choosing to bring matters to court, despite difficulties such as the long duration of such cases and problems obtaining evidence, he said.

"Moreover, the courts have also made more such cases public, which provides social guidance," he added.

Zhu said the main reason businesses frequently infringe celebrities' personality rights is that the punishments are not harsh enough to deter them.