Rebirth of the courtyard, the start is 80s

Chapter 198 What's the Difference Between This and Making Wedding Dresses for Others?
"How can overseas laws control us inland people?"

Cao Zhiqiang was taken aback when he heard the other party say this at first, and then said casually: "How can the sword of the previous dynasty kill the officials of this dynasty?"

Zhao Shouwen was also stunned for a moment, then nodded: "The meaning is similar."

Cao Zhiqiang rubbed his chin: "If I'm not mistaken, you mean to say that overseas copyright laws can't control our inland, so we pirate their books in the inland, and they have nothing to do with us?"

"That's right." Zhao Shouwen said.

"There is no relevant copyright law in our country, so if we can learn from each other, as long as the original author's signature is not mistaken, and we don't blatantly claim that other people's works are written by ourselves, then it will be good.

Just like Mr. Jin Yong, he is from Xiangjiang, and his novels are all overseas editions in traditional Chinese characters, and they have never been officially published in the mainland.

We changed his traditional novels into simplified characters and published them in the inland. As long as the author's name is still written in him, there is no problem.

This is better than changing the title of the book and changing the author's name, and the content is exactly the same.

In this way, we are equivalent to making a name for Mr. Jin Yong. If he knows, he has to thank us.

In fact, this situation is similar to our translation of foreign masterpieces and then publishing them in China.

If you feel sorry, we can add a "translation", isn't that all right? "

"Translated version?" Cao Zhiqiang said with a smile, "Isn't this a deception?"

"How can this be self-deception? Translating traditional characters into simplified characters is a translation."

Zhao Shouwen said: "And the general manager, in fact, many big publishing houses in the south have already done this.

It's just that the publishing houses in the north are still arrogant for the time being, and look down on things like martial arts novels.

But I believe that sooner or later they will learn from those publishing houses in the south, and sooner or later they will publish martial arts novels. After all, this is really profitable.

In other words, we will not publish Xiangjiang's martial arts novels, and other publishing houses will.

That being the case, why don't we do it?
At least, publishing these works that have been tested by the market can make a steady profit without losing money, isn’t it better than publishing our own content? "

After listening to Zhao Shouwen's words, Cao Zhiqiang did not reply immediately, but rubbed his chin and fell into deep thought.

It's not that Cao Zhiqiang agreed with the other party's statement, but he suddenly remembered the question about Jin Yong's novels.

Indeed, he knew in his previous life that there are not only three versions of Jin Yong's novels, but actually countless versions.

However, there are indeed three versions that Jin Yong himself recognized, namely the serialized version, the revised version and the newly revised version.

But in fact, in the inland of the 80s, there were countless versions of Jin Yong's novels, but most of them were pirated editions without Jin Yong's authorization.

Interestingly, however, in the inland version of the 80s, the publishing house that pirated Jin Yong's novels was not a small workshop, but a formal publishing house.

For example, Cao Zhiqiang had seen Jin Yong's novels published by more than N formal publishing houses on the old book website in his previous life.

Like Fujian People's Publishing House, Jilin Publishing House, Jiangxi People's Publishing House, Lujiang Publishing House, Wutaishan Publishing House... It seems that at least dozens of formal publishing houses have published Jin Yong's novels.

Not only Jin Yong's novels, but other novels such as Gu Long Liang Yusheng and Wo Longsheng also had a large number of inland editions at that time, and they were all published by regular publishing houses.

In other words, throughout the 80s, piracy of martial arts novels from Hong Kong and Taiwan was really not a problem, and the publishing houses that pirated these works were all regular publishing houses.

Books from formal publishing houses are better in quality, have wider distribution channels, and the key prices are still very favorable. How does your private black heart workshop compare?
Because Cao Zhiqiang remembers that the prices of various versions of Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts novels in the 80s were very favorable. The price of a set of books was only about three yuan.

Of course, that is the price after [-].

Because in October [-], the state promulgated the "Decision on Economic System Reform", which loosened a lot of control, and a wave of business for all people began to set off.

At that time, publishing houses loosened more controls and completely changed to a self-supporting policy, so many publishing houses began to let themselves go in order to make money.

Because of this, some pirated books in the 80s, if you look closely at the publication time, most of them appeared after October [-]. The reason is that the policy was unbound.

However, before the policy was fully unbundled in [-], most publishing houses were still relying on finances, earning more and earning less. They could not get much benefit for themselves, and their reputation was not good. This is why they lacked the awareness of pirating Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts novels.

For example, the well-known "Wulin" magazine was the first magazine to serialize Jin Yong's works in the mainland. It began to serialize Shooting Condors as early as [-], and became famous because of this, and its circulation exploded in an instant.

Just because of the serialization of Shooting Condors, "Wulin" has changed from a small unknown magazine to a large magazine with a monthly sales of 300 million.

But since the situation is so good, why didn't the serialization of Shooting the Condor stop later, and why did you stop updating it yourself?

It wasn't Mr. Jin Yong who issued a copyright warning to that magazine.

It was because people from the relevant local departments felt that pirating Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts novels was too embarrassing, or they could not get used to this situation, so they issued a "refined and easy-going" advice to "Wulin" magazine, so "Wulin" stopped publishing. carved.

"Wulin" magazine is based in Guangzhou, and it is a southern magazine that has always been relatively open.

Even magazine offices in the south are like this, and publishers and magazine offices in the north can be imagined.

However, "Wulin" made a breakthrough after all, making Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts novels known to the majority of inland people.

And with the market, there will naturally be demand.

So later, some relatively open, regular, and southern publishing houses began to secretly publish pirated martial arts novels, but the circulation was not much.

It is precisely because of this that rare things are more expensive, and a set of Legend of the Condor Heroes, at this time, dare to buy [-] yuan.

It was not until after [-], when pirated martial arts novels were everywhere, that the prices were instantly suppressed.

But it is precisely because of this that the pirated Jin Yong novels before [-] were sold at a high price in the second-hand book market later. Because of the small number, they are still very commemorative, forming a scarcity attribute, similar in nature to monkey tickets.

That is to say, throughout the 80s, due to the indifference of domestic copyright awareness, regular domestic publishing houses were not subject to any restrictions on plagiarizing overseas literary works. This is similar to the situation of Indian generic drugs, and even more direct and rude.

This phenomenon seems to have changed after the 90s, when the domestic copyright law was officially promulgated.

At that time, due to the restrictions of laws and policies, major regular publishing houses will no longer engage in piracy, and only then will there be room for private workshops to survive.

It is precisely because of this that the quality of pirated books after the 90s is obviously not as good as that of the 80s.

The reason is that the pirated books in the 80s were all made by regular publishing houses.

Thinking of this, Cao Zhiqiang suddenly realized why there were very few low-quality pirated books in this period.

It turned out that it was not that ordinary people at this time were more aware of copyright and only bought genuine books, but that private booksellers could not compete with regular publishing houses because genuine books were cheap and of good quality.

Regular publishing houses have better printing equipment, better typesetting, better illustrations, better quality books, and very cheap prices.

In addition, regular publishing houses also have regular distribution channels and have greater bargaining power, so at the same price, regular publishing houses are more profitable.

On the other hand, those three-no publishers without official licenses have no distribution channels, or even if they find distribution channels, their bargaining power is very low, so in order to make money, they can only start with the quality of books.

The quality of the books is poor, and the price is not cheap, so people will naturally vote for genuine copies with their feet.

They are also pirated. How can private pirates compete with regular publishing houses?

Wait, the crux of the problem doesn't seem to be here.

Thinking of this, Cao Zhiqiang suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

That's right, the crux of the problem is not whether it is right or wrong to pirate foreign novels, but the copyright issue.

At this time in China, there is no copyright law at all, and there is no awareness that piracy is wrong at all.

The key is that those who play with doctrine are still regular publishing houses!

These publishers want to engage in piracy, but they never care about the original author's mood, and they will not only pirate overseas works, domestic works can also be plagiarized and pirated.

For example, Ba Jin's Torrent trilogy, after he traveled, he had read at least eight editions from eight publishing houses. These publishing houses must have signed contracts with Ba Jin and authorized them, right?

Thinking of this, Cao Zhiqiang suddenly looked at Yu Deli: "Old Yu, do you still remember my poetry collection?"

"Poems?" Yu Deli was taken aback, "Which one is the farthest in the world?"

"Yes." Cao Zhiqiang nodded.

"Of course I remember." Yu Deli said, "What's wrong?"

Cao Zhiqiang said: "It's nothing, I just want to ask you, my poetry collection is signed with the Writer's Publishing House, and theoretically it can only be published by the Writer's Publishing House.

What if other publishing houses, such as our publishing house, directly pirate the content of that collection of poems and distribute them without negotiating copyright with me, the original author, and the writer's publishing house? "

Yu Deli smiled: "If you pirate your poetry collection and then publish it yourself, it is theoretically possible, but generally speaking, it won't happen for the time being."

"Why?" Cao Zhiqiang asked.

"Because of the sophistication of the world." Yu Deli smiled, "The Writer's Publishing House is a big publishing house, a top-tier publishing house in China, and it is also a publishing house in the capital, so it is naturally superior.

Therefore, works published by such a large publishing house, according to the rules, other publishing houses cannot immediately follow suit and publish.

Even if they think your poetry collection is good and want to republish it..."

"Piracy!" Cao Zhiqiang immediately added.

"Yes, pirated." Yu Deli nodded, "Even if other publishers want to pirate your poetry collection, they will have to wait a month later.

This belongs to the industry rules, and it is a kind of respect for big publishing houses.

It is also because of this that after the author's publishing house released your book and it became popular, it accelerated the speed and increased the number of reprints, just to win more time and use the quantity to compete with pirated books.

Because once a month is over, other publishing houses can pirate your poetry collection at will, and the writer's publishing house can no longer monopolize the profits of this book, and can no longer continue to eat alone.

If you don’t believe me, you can go to the Xinhua Bookstore in two days, and you will definitely see new editions of poetry collections published by other publishing houses. "

"Other publishers have pirated my collection of poems and sold them. Can I ask for copyright fees?" Cao Zhiqiang asked.

"It's definitely not possible." Yu Deli smiled and shook his head.

Cao Zhiqiang nodded, and then asked: "What if there is a publishing house that doesn't follow the rules?

For example, Writers Publishing House, they published that collection of poems less than a month, but other publishing houses pirated my collection of poems? "

"That's not talking about the rules." Yu Deli said, "If you don't talk about the rules, in theory, you can't do anything to others, but this is not giving face to the writer's publishing house.

Writers' Publishing House is a big company with a wide range of people, especially the relationship with the main branch of Xinhua Bookstore.

Therefore, if there are other publishing houses that don't follow the rules and don't give face to the writer's publishing house, they can find trouble with that unruly publishing house in other ways.

For example, tell Xinhua Bookstore to let them charge more for the other party's publishing fee, even if they ask for one or two more discounts, it will be enough for the other party to go around.

In addition, you can also say hello to the other party's superior management department, such as the publishing bureau, and ask them to trouble that publishing house, and there are even more tricks.

So generally speaking, no one would dare to disobey the rules and fight against a big publishing house like the Writer's Publishing House. "

Cao Zhiqiang blinked: "Then suppose I use the name of Hongguang Publishing House to publish my own collection of poems... I mean, publish my collection of poems that is still under protection for one month, what will happen?"

"I'm afraid this is very troublesome." Yu Deli frowned.

"Because if you do this, it is also a violation of the rules, and generally you will not agree.

But, your situation is special, and if you insist on reprinting within a one-month protection period, you can go out to have a meal with the president of the Writer Publishing House directly, and discuss this matter at the dinner table.

As long as you can negotiate with the president of the writer's publishing house and let him not pursue this matter, it should be fine. "

"Understood." Cao Zhiqiang nodded.

"That is to say, if I publish the works I write myself, even if I am the original creator and the copyright is in my hands, others don't have to talk to me about the copyright and just take it for pirated distribution. Those pirate publishers can’t help it, right?”

Yu Deli nodded: "For now, that's the case.

However, according to the regulations, if our publishing house is the first to publish, we can have a one-month exclusive publishing protection period.

It is enough to make more money within this month, and it is useless after the protection period. "

"Then it's just a joke!" Cao Zhiqiang was furious.

"The book I have worked so hard to write can be pirated and distributed by others to make money after a month. I can't sue them. Is there any reason for this? Is there any law?"

Yu Deli was stunned, and then whispered: "Well, don't you still have a one-month protection period, and the money earned during this period is enough?"

"How is this possible?" Cao Zhiqi continued angrily, "This is clearly a plunder! Shameful plunder!"

Speaking of this, Cao Zhiqiang said angrily: "Is there any way to avoid it? Old Yu?"

Yu Deli thought for a while: "Then I'm afraid the only way is to make good use of that one month, increase the circulation, and strive to fill the book market within the one-month protection period, and the price should be low, so low that others can't make money. That way there will be no piracy."

"In this way, wouldn't I lose a lot?" Cao Zhiqiang frowned.

Yu Deli nodded: "It's a little loss, but there's no way, it's the only way."

"Forget it." Cao Zhiqiang waved his hand, "If that's the case, then everything I said before is invalid!"

"Void?" Yu Deli frowned, "You mean..."

"I mean, my book is not out here! Including my "Shattered Void", it's not out!"

"Mo Dan, it's too deceitful!"

Indeed, Cao Zhiqiang suddenly thought that if this was the case, then the effect of his hard work as a publishing house would be greatly reduced.

Because there is no copyright law in China, anyone can pirate it openly, so the novels he has worked so hard to create can only be eaten alone for a month in the end.

In the future, others can use it to pirate and publish books at will.

Then, he is a dignified genuine publisher, one month after publishing the book, he still has to compete in the market with the pirates who pirated his own books. The key point is that you still have nothing to do with the regular publishing houses that publish pirated books, which is not good to think about.

How is this different from making wedding dresses for others?
After all, when they play pirated books, they don't need to conceive the content at all, just copy it directly, don't be too easy.

Thinking of this, Cao Zhiqiang stood up angrily: "Okay, today's meeting will be here first!"

But then, Cao Zhiqiang, who was furious, called his name directly: "By the way, Lao Yu, and you, Zhao Shouwen, you two come with me. Other people, what should you do, the meeting is over!"

(End of this chapter)