You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 469

Ma Huateng frowned and looked at Yao Yiming without saying anything.

Yao Yiming was bewildered and confused, his mind was a little confused, "Boss Ma, what does our QQ Farm have to do with Facebook? If we want to sue, it should be the campus network that does it."

Zheng Zhihao, who was sitting next to him, said in a low voice: "Campus Network and Facebook have a strategic cooperation agreement. Campus Network authorized Happy Farm to Facebook, so Facebook sued us for infringement and plagiarism, saying that we did not obtain authorization from Campus Network and were infringing on Facebook's rights."

Yao Yiming became even more confused when he heard this, "Isn't this right?"

"Facebook was only authorized by the campus network. The real copyright owner is the campus network. If there is infringement, it should be the campus network that should defend its rights."

Zheng Zhihao coughed and said, "We didn't plagiarize, Manager Yao. QQ Farm was developed by us. From a legal perspective, having the same gameplay does not constitute plagiarism."

"Yes, yes, yes." Yao Yiming nodded quickly in agreement, "We did not plagiarize, and there is no infringement of rights or anything like that."

Ma Huateng knocked on the table and said expressionlessly, "Facebook's lawyer's letter has already explained the situation. They obtained the overseas version authorization and made some changes, including art resources."

"These modified art resources are very similar to the art resources used in our QQ Farm. Facebook warned our company that it would sue Penguin if it did not correct it immediately."

"Manager Yao, do you know what the situation is regarding the infringement of art resources?"

Yao Yiming was stunned and quickly explained: "Mr. Ma, this is the first time I've heard about Facebook. I didn't even know they had an overseas version."

"Those art resources were made by our company's artists. If we want to copy someone, we should copy Farmville."

"The overseas version of Facebook hasn't even been launched yet. Even if I want to copy it, there's nowhere to copy it."

Zheng Zhihao spoke again, "We didn't plagiarize, this is a complete misunderstanding."

Ma Huateng glanced at Yao Yiming and said, "Facebook had already conducted a small-scale test last month. Not many people knew about it, but they were not making up stories about art resources."

As he spoke, Ma Huateng threw a few photos on the table and said, "This is the evidence they provided. You can see it for yourself."

Yao Yiming hurriedly picked up the photo and looked at it, then he was stunned. The photo provided by Facebook was a printout of a screenshot of the overseas version of "Farmland".

Apart from the difference in text, the various other artistic elements shown in these screenshots are not completely similar to QQ Farm. At best, they are exactly the same.

"This... this is a coincidence, it must be a coincidence!" Yao Yiming protested excitedly, "We couldn't have plagiarized this, I saw those artists draw it."

Ma Huateng interrupted him directly, "No matter if it's a coincidence or something else, replace the art resources for me immediately."

"Uh, OK, Mr. Ma." Yao Yiming agreed immediately, "I'll do it right away."

After Yao Yiming left, Zheng Zhihao sighed, "Boss Ma, this is really just a coincidence. It may be that their art styles collided."

"Okay, just change it." Ma Huateng didn't want to ask the reason. He just wanted to deal with the trouble quickly. He was very busy and had many things to deal with.

If it was a domestic company that sued, Penguin would not change at all. Now that it is willing to change proactively, it means it is showing weakness and agreeing to reconcile.

Who can blame Facebook for its huge influence abroad? Ma Huateng doesn’t believe that Facebook will really sue him, but it’s always better to have less trouble.

Now that QQ Farm is performing brilliantly, he also hopes that this project can boost QQ Space.

"Mr. Zheng, what is the current situation of QQ Space?" Ma Huateng asked.

"The network problem is still very serious. It takes five seconds for users to load the QQ space." Zheng Zhihao frowned and said, "From the perspective of user experience, it is very bad. Many users are unwilling to open the QQ space because of this."

"I'm organizing the technology to find a way to keep the loading time under two seconds."

Zheng Zhihao sighed, "I think what Qin Shaoyan of Campus Network said makes a lot of sense. When making products, we should always put user experience first."

"From the various details of the campus network, we can see that they are really implementing the principle of user experience first."

"Yeah." Ma Huateng had to admit, "Qin Shaoyan is very capable. He is the best product manager I have ever seen."

"Unfortunately, the more capable a person is, the more likely they are to become our biggest rival in the future."

Ma Huateng sighed. He didn’t pay much attention to the rapid development of the campus network before, but everything has been completely different since the campus network went public.

An Internet company with a market value of nearly 10 billion US dollars cannot continue to focus all its attention on campus. It has every motivation to expand outward.

The explosive popularity of "Happy Farm" quickly attracted 10 million users, which made Penguin feel a huge threat.

Ma Huateng thought of this and said: "QQ Farm has great potential. If you invest more resources, I hope it can surpass Happy Farm."

"Okay, I'll allocate more resources over there this month." Zheng Zhihao agreed readily.

Yao Yiming was very efficient. He returned to the project team and called all the artists over. He asked sternly, "Has anyone played the overseas version of Farmville on Facebook?"

The artists present all looked confused and asked, "Isn't Happy Farm part of the campus network? When did Facebook come into being?"

Seeing that everyone's expressions didn't seem fake, Yao Yiming frowned and said, "Facebook sent a lawyer's letter to our company, saying that we plagiarized their art."

The artists were filled with righteous indignation and grievance, saying, "We drew them all by ourselves. We designed them carefully. We definitely did not plagiarize!"

They definitely didn't lie, they indeed drew it themselves, but how did it become a Facebook post?

"Can we sue them for plagiarism?"

"If you have evidence, then you can sue them. They will accuse you of plagiarism and want to sue you."

"Aren't they following the law? How can they slander someone out of thin air?"

"Alright, alright." Yao Yiming stopped the discussion, "Hurry up and replace the current set of art resources, and this matter will be over."

……

Yao Yiming walked into Ma Huateng's office again with a confused look on his face, and then threw a stack of photos at him.

"Look at what you have done!" Ma Huateng scolded with a gloomy face, "I asked you to replace the controversial art resources, not to copy another one!"

"Boss Ma, this... this is not right." Yao Yiming felt like it was snowing in June. He felt so wronged that he had no one to complain to. "We worked overnight to create a new set, so how come it's considered plagiarism?"

"There's no way our artists would do something like this. I personally supervised their work."

“Is Facebook deliberately messing with us?”

"Then why do you think Facebook wants to mess with us?" Ma Huateng asked back unhappily.

"This..." Yao Yiming was speechless for a moment. He also wanted to know why.

"Hurry up and change this set too." Zheng Zhihao interrupted and tried to smooth things over. "What are you still standing there for? Go quickly."

"Mr. Ma, I think our employees are more trustworthy. Besides, Facebook sent two lawyers' letters, which was clearly intended to target us."

"What do they want to do?"

Ma Huateng snorted coldly, "Facebook requires us to stop infringing on the copyright, take QQ Farm offline, and not create or operate similar products again."

"What do they mean by this?!" Zheng Zhihao was also anxious, "It has nothing to do with them."

QQ Farm is developing rapidly and has huge market potential. How can we just give up such a high-quality project? The phone on Ma Huateng's desk rang urgently. He picked up the receiver and listened to a few words. His expression became uglier.

"Facebook has sued us in the Silicon Valley court." Ma Huateng put down the microphone with a grim face and said to Zheng Zhihao.

This completely frustrated Zheng Zhihao. "Are you just going to file a lawsuit? You're not going to talk about it anymore?"

"The other party said that we have repeatedly infringed their rights and had no sincerity in apologizing, so we decided to use legal weapons to protect our rights." Ma Huateng said very depressed, "Either we take QQ Farm offline, or we file a lawsuit and let the law decide."

"This is deliberately targeting us!" Zheng Zhihao could no longer sit still and slammed the table angrily, "Facebook must have been instigated by the campus network! Facebook is also stupid, willingly being used as a gun by the campus network. This is hurting others and not benefiting themselves!"

"What do they want?!"

Ma Huateng said in a muffled voice: "Qin Shaoyan is the founder of Facebook and a major shareholder of Facebook."

"Ah?" Zheng Zhihao was stunned when he heard the news, and then he reacted, "No wonder, this must be Qin Shaoyan's doing!"

"No matter who did it, we have to deal with the current trouble first." Ma Huateng was even more depressed. No one wanted to get involved in a lawsuit, so it was better to avoid the lawsuit.

Silicon Valley is their home turf, not Nanshan, so the judgment is naturally not likely to be in their favor.

Regardless of how the US will rule, we have to actively respond to the lawsuit and send people to the US to handle the litigation, which costs money, time and energy.

After thinking it over, Ma Huateng decided to call Qin Shaoyan.

The call was quickly connected, and Qin Shaoyan greeted him enthusiastically, "What's up, Brother Xiao Ma?"

"Boss Qin," Ma Huateng said straight to the point, "If you have any questions, just tell me directly. Why do you need Facebook to do these things?"

"What's the problem?" Qin Shaoyan was very surprised. "Brother Xiao Ma, what are you talking about? Why ask Facebook to come forward?"

"Boss Qin is obviously a master at playing dumb." Ma Huateng laughed, "It's just about QQ Farm, we can discuss anything, why make it so ugly?"

"What's more, we are all Chinese Internet companies. We can't let Facebook, an American company, mess things up."

There was no sound from Qin Shaoyan, and he remained silent.

Ma Huateng continued, "Some people may say that QQ Farm imitated Happy Farm, but since the game modes are the same, it cannot be considered as infringement, right?"

"Boss Qin, if you really have any opinions, you can communicate with me directly and we can discuss it."

"Let's take a step back and say, if we really want to go to court, why should Facebook be the one to sue Penguin?"

Qin Shaoyan couldn't help but said, "Boss Ma, what are you talking about?"

"From what you said, it seems like you are saying that I was the one who instigated the lawsuit between Facebook and Penguin?"

"How can you slander someone's innocence like that? Even though we are familiar with each other, we can't say anything careless!"

"What does Facebook have to do with me? What do they do have to do with me?!"

"Qin Shaoyan, it's meaningless if you say that." Ma Huateng said angrily, "You are the founder and major shareholder of Facebook. How can you say it has nothing to do with you?"

"You authorized the overseas version of Farmville to Facebook, and then let Facebook sue Penguin for copyright infringement. Do you dare to say that it has nothing to do with you?"

Qin Shaoyan raised his voice, "First, although I am the founder of Facebook, I have not participated in Facebook's affairs for a long time. They kicked me out of the decision-making circle a long time ago."

"Second, I own less than 8% of Facebook and have no other interests."

"I am just a small shareholder of Facebook now, don't blame me for everything!"

Ma Huateng was stunned for a moment, and asked doubtfully: "Where is your share? How come there is only 8% left?"

"Of course it was sold." Qin Shaoyan replied unhappily.

"Sold?!" Ma Huateng was incredulous. "Just sold them all? How could you sell them all?"

Facebook is so valuable, but it sold most of its shares without waiting for the IPO. This is simply a fantasy.

"What else?!" Qin Shaoyan was furious. "What if I don't sell it? I'm a foreigner, not an American!"

"How could Silicon Valley allow a Chinese person to become a major shareholder of Facebook?! They say it's about freedom and tolerance, but that's all bullshit!"

"It's just cannibalism. I was forced to sell my shares. Why else would I sell YouTube?"

Ma Huateng was confused by Qin Shaoyan's series of words and didn't know what to say for a moment.

Qin Shaoyan said indignantly, "I sold my shares to Microsoft and IDG in the United States long before Campus Network went public. So our Campus Network and Facebook are left with only a useless strategic partnership."

"It's completely nonsense that I instructed Facebook to sue you. How could I have the nerve to ask Facebook to work for me?"

Ma Huateng was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "Boss Qin, there may be a misunderstanding here. I apologize to you. I didn't understand the situation."

"The current situation is that Facebook wants to sue us in a Silicon Valley court. Although we have a clear conscience, after all, we are suing on someone else's turf, so it's very troublesome."

"Could you please ask Mr. Qin to pass on a message for us? We, the Penguins, are willing to communicate. If there is anything that must be brought to court, why don't we sit down and talk first?"

Qin Shaoyan sneered, "Boss Ma, you must have made a mistake."

"What does your and Facebook's affairs have to do with me? And I am the biggest victim in this matter, okay."

"You know best whether your QQ Farm is plagiarized or not. Now Facebook is suing you, and you actually want me to intercede for you?"

“A plagiarist who plagiarized my creative ideas and art resources asked the person being plagiarized to intercede for the plagiarist and persuade another person whose rights were infringed not to defend their own rights?”

Ma Huateng couldn't hold it in any longer. "Boss Qin, from a legal point of view, our QQ Farm is not plagiarizing..."

"From a legal perspective, right?" Qin Shaoyan said coldly, "Then let the law decide whether it is plagiarism or not."

After saying that, Qin Shaoyan hung up the phone, and the call was rejected when he called again.

Ma Huateng was a little surprised, but finally gave up the idea of ​​continuing to call.

A week later, the Silicon Valley court issued its ruling.

It was confirmed that Penguin's QQ Farm plagiarized the overseas version of "Happy Farm" and demanded that Penguin immediately stop the infringement and compensate Facebook with US$100 million.

In this round, California was invincible and defeated Nanshan Pizza Hut.

This news was like a bolt from the blue, leaving Penguin completely stunned, and even the company’s legal department was at a loss as to what to do.

Ma Huateng immediately convened a meeting of the think tank and legal team to actively discuss response strategies. However, given the current situation, the chances of winning the lawsuit are not optimistic.

Even the American lawyer hired by Penguin suggested that it would be better to reach a direct settlement and there was no point in filing a lawsuit.

One hundred million US dollars is too much of an amount. This is the first time that Penguin has lost a lawsuit. It is also unknown what impact the Silicon Valley court’s ruling will have on Penguin’s domestic market.

However, what the penguin didn't know was that even bigger trouble was about to come.

(End of this chapter)