Riding the wind of rebirth

After taking his seat, Zhou Zhi looked at the menu and realized that the place where they parked was the back door. He didn’t see the name of the restaurant. Only now did he know that the real name of the restaurant was "Zhuxiguan".

Just by looking at the name, you can tell that this is a restaurant specializing in Huaiyang cuisine. The name is taken from "The famous capital of Huaizuo, the beautiful place of Zhuxi, Qiantang has been prosperous since ancient times."

The dishes on the menu are also classics of Huaiyang cuisine, including braised lion head with crab meat, boiled dried shredded pork, three-piece duck, soft-shelled eel, crystal braised pork, squirrel mandarin fish, Liangxi crispy eel and many more.

It is nice to eat Huaiyang cuisine in this season. In addition, this restaurant also serves green plums soaked in rice wine, which is rare in the capital of this era. It also shows that the Huaiyang cuisine of this restaurant may be more authentic.

Zhou Zhi was not very knowledgeable about Huaiyang cuisine, but he was the only expert in this area, so he ordered a number of dishes that would rarely go wrong, and paired them with green plum rice wine suitable for Japanese and Korean friends, so that everyone could chat while eating.

The dishes were all quite good, especially the clear soup fish balls dish, which was served to each person. Four white and tender fish balls floated in the clear soup without any oil, with a piece of tender green vegetable on the side. It was a nutritious combination with good color, aroma and taste. Zhou Zhi knew it was authentic Kung Fu soup as soon as he tasted it, and couldn't help but exclaimed: "Mr. Matsui really knows how to choose a place."

"I am also... learning as I go." Matsui Zao said, "I have been here once before and I think the environment and dishes are good. It is suitable for entertaining guests with higher tastes."

"Although you are foreigners, I feel like you are more familiar with the capital than I am." Zhou Zhi said with a smile.

"We come here quite often." Ikedaoka pointed to a few places nearby and said, "There are a few good music bars by the lake. We often come here with friends to have a drink. We can also go and have some fun later."

Of course, eating and receiving were not the main topics of today. Everyone's topic soon shifted to the lawsuit that was about to begin in the United States.

Zhou Zhi learned from Zhang Siluo and Ikeda Qiu that Samsung and Sony were actively preparing for a lawsuit. He couldn't help but frowned: "Shouldn't they be negotiating and mediating? Why did they jump directly to the lawsuit?"

"The situation is quite serious." Zhang Siluo added rice wine to Zhou Zhi, Mai Xiaomiao, and An Chunjia, and explained: "The Music Industry Association is a relatively powerful union in the United States. Because they used to control the traditional distribution channels, they have a strong control over music industry workers, and many music industry workers are used to being managed by them. Therefore, whenever they negotiate on behalf of music industry workers, they are very strong, and accordingly, the demands they put forward can generally be met."

"But this time their demands are quite unreasonable and we cannot compromise, so the only option left is litigation."

"What do they want?" Zhou Zhi asked.

"The most unreasonable demand seems to be that the Digital Alliance be split into several parts, and the digital music part should be brought under the management of their practitioners' union and pay annual dues."

"anything else?"

"In addition, the industry union will share in the profits from every downloaded song, and the original creators will also receive a higher share. These two additional expenses will be deducted from our profits."

"In addition, the copyright licensing agreement needs to be signed again. Music released by some new authors can be promoted through the platform, but the copyright needs to be shared by the practitioners' union, the Digital Alliance, and the original author or the music company to which the author belongs." "Does our Digital Alliance now jointly own the copyright with the original author?" Zhou Zhi asked.

"No, after the original creators upload their music, we obtain the copyright authorization by default and share the operating income with the creators. The copyright still belongs to the original creators." Ikeda Oka said: "In theory, this clause proposed by the practitioners' union is actually a bit good for the Digital Alliance."

"These conditions are too harsh. We can't agree to any of them." Zhou Zhi shook his head and said, "The last one may seem good for us, but it hurts the interests of the original creators. In the long run, it will be detrimental to the industry and the alliance. We can't listen to them."

"Yes, so the only option is litigation." Zhang Siluo said, "But according to past experience, this type of lawsuit filed on behalf of practitioners against employers will receive widespread sympathy in society. The Music Practitioners Union also lost more than it won in the past, so this type of lawsuit is usually very difficult."

"Have you fallen into a state of inertia?" Zhou Zhi thought for a moment and asked, "The lawsuits initiated by the practitioners' union in the past are fundamentally different from this one. Haven't you noticed?"

"Is there any difference?" Jin Chunyi asked.

"I think that the reason why the workers' unions were able to gain widespread sympathy and achieve many successes in previous lawsuits is that they are fighting for the interests of the workers and standing with them. In terms of identity, they are the true representatives of the workers."

"Yes, this is the original purpose of the existence of the Music Industry Union." Zhang Siluo said, "It is also the reason why they can represent music industry practitioners and become the main body of the lawsuit against us. Is there any difference now?"

"I think it is definitely different." Zhou Zhi said: "I think at least this time, the practitioners' union cannot represent all practitioners. They can only represent those practitioners who are registered with the union, but cannot represent the entrepreneurs who do not have the opportunity to register with the union but can freely publish their works in our union, and they cannot represent the majority of music fans."

"They can control music companies, and through them control stars, but can they control the vast majority of fans who have the ability to create? Can they control the vast majority of music fans who have the ability to appreciate music?"

Huaiyang cuisine is very particular about knife skills, and the knife skills are relatively fine. The dishes are exquisite in shape and mellow in taste. In cooking, they make good use of the heat and pay attention to the fire skills. They are good at stewing, braising, simmering, warming, steaming, roasting and stir-frying. The raw materials are mostly aquatic products, focusing on freshness, and the taste is mild, fresh and slightly sweet. Zhou Zhi added a spoonful of squirrel mandarin fish to Mai Xiaomiao and said lightly: "I'm sorry, I don't think they can represent it, but we, the Digital Alliance, can."

Everyone at the table, except Mai Xiaomiao, was shocked. Zhang Siluo and Ikeda Qiu looked at Zhou Zhi with admiration in their eyes.

Yes, the Digital Alliance uses an online forum as a communication platform. This platform ensures the greatest fairness and allows countless freelance creators to have the opportunity to meet the audience for their works, thereby gaining a lot of benefits.

For this purpose, many music companies even keep their discovered new talents secret and carefully train them before presenting them on the Digital Alliance forum as "amateurs" to receive positive reviews, creating a "grassroots genius" persona that they then hype and promote.

In any case, this approach has broken the partial monopoly of the practitioners' union on market resources and created a new business structure! (End of this chapter)