After a successful film and television drama, in order to meet the cultural consumption needs of the public, as well as to save costs and obtain more economic benefits, investment producers often shoot sequels for the successful work. Such as "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Mad Housewives" in the United States; "Infernal Affairs" and "Forerunner of Legal Evidence" in Hong Kong; "Domestic" Former "," Love Apartment ", and so on, so is it possible to shoot sequels of film and television dramas casually?"? What authorization should be obtained to be feasible?

From the perspective of industry practice, film and television series sequels are works that extend and expand the original works in time or space, expand or borrow the main characters, typical artistic images, clues, etc. of existing works to extend and expand. A sequel work belongs to an adaptation work in the sense of copyright law. An adaptation work refers to a work formed by adding new expressions that meet the requirements of originality on the basis of maintaining the original work with original basic expressions. "To shoot and produce sequels to movies and TV dramas, it is generally necessary to obtain legal authorization, otherwise it may constitute infringement or unfair competition.". If the sequel to the TV series "Dazhaimen" caused a copyright dispute, CCTV Media Co., Ltd. filed a lawsuit to the court; For example, the adaptation of the sequel to the online drama "The Year of Hurry" caused a copyright dispute, and the novel author Jiuye Fen (formerly known as Wang Xiaoding) sued Sohu.

1、 To shoot a sequel to a film and television drama, it is necessary to obtain the authorization of the original film and television drama copyright owner

The reason why a sequel to a film and television series belongs to an adaptation work is because it has dual attributes, that is, the sequel contains two parts of content. On the one hand, the sequel works include the original expression of the original works. For example, the sequel generally uses the character material and relationship in the original film and television dramas, and the new story background is also based on the story outline in the original works. On the other hand, the sequel works also include new original expressions, such as adding new characters and creating new storylines.

Article 13 of China's Copyright Law stipulates: "The copyright in a work created by adaptation, translation, annotation, or arrangement of an existing work shall be enjoyed by the person who adapted, translated, annotated, or arranged the work, but the exercise of the copyright shall not infringe upon the copyright in the original work.", Article 16 stipulates that "Anyone who uses a work created by adaptation, translation, annotation, arrangement, or compilation of an existing work for publication, performance, or production of audio and video recordings shall obtain permission from, and pay remuneration to, the copyright owner of the work and the copyright owner of the original work."

Based on the above provisions, we can analyze and conclude that it is precisely due to the dual nature of film and television series sequels that the exercise of their rights also has two sides: on the one hand, sequel works include new creative expressions, and the copyright owner of the sequel works enjoys all the personal and property rights of the copyright specified in Article 10 of the Copyright Law. On the other hand, because the sequel works include the original expression of the original work, their exercise is bound to be restricted and affected by the copyright of the original work, and the consent of the copyright owner of the original work is required.

2、 To shoot a sequel to a film and television drama, it is also necessary to obtain the authorization of the script copyright owner of the original film and television drama

Is it okay to adapt the original film and television series and shoot sequel works only with the authorization of the original film and television series copyright owner? In reality, it is not so simple. Because the original movie and TV series were also adapted and filmed based on the original movie and TV drama script, the elements of the original movie and TV series, such as story outlines, character materials, character relationships, and specific plots, are basically based on the movie and TV drama script. In this case, the original screenplay is an original work, while the original screenplay is an adaptation work, and the adaptation screenplay is a secondary adaptation work.

(1)Is it necessary to obtain dual permission from the original film and television drama copyright owner and the original film and television drama script copyright owner?

Generally speaking, adapting original film and television dramas to shoot sequel works will use the original film and television dramas as the original expression of audio-visual works, and will also use the original film and television dramas as the original expression of written works. Moreover, there is a strong unity of expression between the two, making it difficult to strictly distinguish between them. Therefore, shooting sequel works requires dual permission from the original film and television drama copyright owner and the original film and television drama script copyright owner.

(2) Is it only necessary to obtain the authorization of the original film and television drama copyright owner, without obtaining the authorization of the original film and television drama copyright owner?

Some people may raise objections when I see this. Since the original movie and TV series are adapted from the original movie and TV series script, the sequel of the movie and TV series can also be adapted and shot based on the original movie and TV series script, then I only need to obtain the authorization of the original movie and TV series script copyright owner to shoot the sequel of the movie and TV series, and I do not need to obtain the authorization of the original movie and TV series copyright owner.

This article does not recommend that investment producers adopt this view. There are significant differences in the expression of scripts as written works and movies and TV plays as audio-visual works. Although film and television dramas are filmed based on the script and utilize the basic expressions of the script, they are audiovisual works that also include the use of music, photography, and art works, and can form their own new expressions. Therefore, film and television dramas belong to independent new works, which form their own new and original expression based on the original expression of the script. Since the sequel of a movie and TV series is called a sequel, it is inevitable to use the original expression of the original movie and TV series that are both audio-visual works, and still require the authorization of the copyright owner of the original movie and TV series.

Of course, there are not many people who use this perspective in practice, because the copyright owner of a movie and television drama and the copyright owner of the movie and television drama are often the same subject, and often the investor and producer of the sequel is also the copyright owner of the original movie and television drama.

(3)Is it possible to constitute unfair competition under the banner of "sequel"?

Of course, if you only use the original film and television drama or original creative expression of the original script without authorization under the banner of "sequel", it may not constitute an infringement of copyright, but it may constitute unfair competition. This article will not discuss it in detail.

3、 Filming a sequel to a movie or TV series may also require authorization from the copyright owner of the original novel

There is also a common situation where the scripts of original movies and TV dramas are also adapted works, and are created based on the original novel. Does this situation require further authorization from the novel copyright owner?

This article believes that specific analysis is needed. The original novel is adapted as a movie and television drama script, and the movie and television drama script is adapted as an original movie and television drama. After two adaptations, a sequel to the movie and television drama may only use the character names or character relationships of the original novel, rather than the original expression of the original novel. Character names and simple character relationships are difficult to constitute independent works due to their lack of originality and are not protected by copyright law.

However, in practice, in order to avoid the risk of copyright infringement or unfair competition, the author generally recommends that investment producers adhere to the legal principle of "not infringing the copyright of the original work", and should obtain authorization as long as the basic expression of the original work is used. Therefore, if there is an original novel, the filming of a sequel to a film and television drama should also be authorized by the copyright owner of the original novel.

Of course, in industry practice, in order to protect their legitimate rights and interests and avoid competition, copyright owners of original movies and TV dramas typically obtain exclusive rights to adapt, film, and sublicense original novels from the copyright owners of the original novels for a considerable period of time. Therefore, in this case, it is sufficient for the investment producer to obtain permission directly from the copyright owner of the original film and television series for filming a sequel.