Chapter 541 - Settling scores! (2/2)
Zhang Kui was getting really anxious this time. ”How the h.e.l.l did this happen? Are there even such problems?”
A female deputy editor said anxiously in an unsure tone, ”I've just asked them to check and it seems like the authorities have given a valid reason for the notice. But all of them were just minor issues, besides…those kind of issues have never given us any problems in the past. The other publis.h.i.+ng firms are also doing the same, so why did they suddenly review this?”
Another person asked, ”How about the other firms? Did they receive the notice to take their publications off the shelf too?”
A youth said, ”I've just checked and there's no indication that this is happening to them. The only ones who have received such an order to remove such a large number of publications are us!”
Every one of them were shocked to hear that, ”This….”
Zhang Kui screamed, ”Contact the authorities immediately and find out if there's any room for negotiations. We must not be forced to take down these batches of audio and visual publications! No firm would be able to bear a loss like this! If necessary, we will follow the regulations and make some edits to ensure that it stays up on the shelves for sale!”
A middle-aged man who was responsible for this immediately headed off to do some public relations. But ten minutes later, he returned to the meeting room with a sunken expression.
Someone in upper management asked, ”How was it?”
That person inhaled deeply and said, ”It didn't work. Those listed works must be taken off the shelves and no exceptions can be made even if we edit them. On top of that, we must also carry out the recall immediately!”
Zhang Kui was dumbfounded. ”Even edits won't help?”
The person shook his head and said, ”We have to wait for the notice before we know when it would pa.s.s their review. But someone I know well told me in secret not to hold out too much hope.”
Zhang Kui furiously pounded the table. ”Based on what are they doing this to us!”
A middle-aged editor said, ”Aren't they bullying us!”
”They have just changed their leader and a newly appointed official would surely take some actions, so are we…being used as an example? But then, why does it have to be us?”
A wave of dissent and grumbling echoed through the meeting room. Everyone was panicking!
It was ten excellent publications they were talking about, especially the crosstalk compilation. At the crosstalk compet.i.tion this year, despite it being called off, Zhang Ye's outstanding crosstalks that were beyond this era had created a new platform for the crosstalk industry and drove up demand for it. Everyone was paying much more attention to crosstalk than before and thus the publis.h.i.+ng firm had ridden on this wave and spent a large amount of money to release this batch of crosstalk audio and visual products. But somehow, it ended up being banned before it even saw any sales! For the Beijing Education Publis.h.i.+ng Firm, this was the kind of news that nightmares were made of!
They were finished!
This time, they'd lost a lot of money!
Just counting the number of works and CDs they had on hand would put the amount in the millions! That was just the tip of the iceberg as there was also money involved in obtaining copyrights, promotional budgets, and resource fees to account for. Their loss was immeasurable as it probably reached into the figure of more than several millions! They were likely to lose more than ten million!
Money was not the only thing they would lose as their reputation and brand name would plummet as well. It wouldn't be a surprise if they were to lose a large number of signed authors in the wake of this incident. Why? Because the other publis.h.i.+ng firms did not seem to suffer from any of these measures and were operating fine as they were before. Yet Beijing Education Publis.h.i.+ng Firm was encountering all these problems? They had works banned one after another by the censor board? This would obviously make the authors feel a sense of unease, as they wondered about the problems this particular publis.h.i.+ng firm had. Just staying around would be too dangerous as the banned publications may belong to other authors today, but would their publications be the next one targeted? They will definitely not look to sign with this publication firm for their next work! This would occur if they suffered a loss in their reputation and it was something that was much more damaging than losing money itself. The foundation of the company itself was shaken to the very core!
Their losses were much more than heavy!!
The female deputy editor suddenly realized, ”Could this matter be related to Zhang Ye's unbanning? Our publis.h.i.+ng firm had treated Zhang Ye quite harshly at that time when he got banned.”
”Zhang Ye?”
”It's because of him?”
”Right, the SARFT's new leader was previously from Peking University!”
”Can this really be because of Zhang Ye’s settling scores? How could he possibly be capable of that!”
A few of them were extremely agitated by this suggestion!
Zhang Kui was now thinking of his earlier conversation with Zhang Ye and remembered his p.r.o.nouncement. Thinking about it now, Zhang Kui's heart turned cold. He did not know if everything that was happening now was planned by Zhang Ye, but he was clear that this matter was somewhat related to him!
The female deputy editor sighed, then paused and sighed again. ”I've already said that we should have held back on the compensation figure back then. Even if Zhang Ye had been banned and suppressed at that time, we shouldn't have….He is an unusually odd person and we must never use common sense to make our decisions. Hai, but it's too late to say anything now.”
When they previously requested for the compensation, they knew that their firm was not ethical in asking for such a huge sum. It looked like they had made a fatal mistake in doing so as they handled the whole matter too harshly back then! They thus had affected any chance of working out an agreement with Zhang Ye again!
”What should we do?”
”If we really have to take everything off the shelves, then we wouldn't have any funds left to operate the business. We won't be able to recover from this loss and over the coming months, all our authors will leave as well!”
”d.a.m.n it!”
”Editor-in-Chief Zhang, please think of a way!”
Unable to come up with any solutions, all of them had to take responsibility!
Zhang Kui did not say a word as he knew there was no way out of this. At this moment, he felt a tinge of regret. A momentary slip-up was all it took and their publis.h.i.+ng firm had to deal with this devastating blow now. Their futures looked bleak and he knew that his position as editor-in-chief was over as well. The reason for all of these outcomes was just because of a mere compensation sum of 3.5 million? Thinking about it now, what d.a.m.ned value was that worth! It was only 3.5 million! This was an amount that no big publis.h.i.+ng firms would bat an eyelid at. Yet it was precisely because of this amount that they were going to suffer tangible and intangible losses of possibly more that ten times of that amount!
Was it worth it?
Definitely not!
But at the point in time when Decree #43 was pa.s.sed, who would have thought that Zhang Ye would be able to get through it without being affected? He even managed to make a comeback to the entertainment business like he had now! If they had known it was going to be like this, would they have asked him for the compensation fee? If they had given him a.s.sistance when he was down, not only would they not be affected by all these troubles, they would even have gained the copyright to Legend of Wukong and earned far more money from it. But look at them now! They ended their relations.h.i.+p with Zhang Ye too early and even hit him while was down. All of that had led to the current situation that they were faced with!
Zhang Kui slammed him hands down on the table again, and said, ”Try to minimize our losses!”
”What do you mean?” the female editor asked.
Zhang Kui said, ”The copyright fees we paid out! Try to get as much back as possible!”
At another location.
Tang Dazhang was just watching TV when his phone rang.
”h.e.l.lo, Teacher Tang, I am Xiaoyan from Beijing Education Publis.h.i.+ng Firm.”
”Oh, hur hur, Xiaoyan, how are you? What are you looking for me for? Has the crosstalk compilation gone on sales already?”
”Not yet. Uh, there are some problems with your crosstalk compilation. The authorities have issued a notice of takedown, so…so we are contacting you now to talk about the copyright fees.”
”Takedown?”
”Yes, we just received the notice.”
”Your firm wants to recoup the copyright fees?”
”That's right, we…”
”It's your problem if you're unable to publish it. What has it got to do with me?”
”That's because it's down to problems with your works that led to it being taken down. You can't possibly expect our publis.h.i.+ng firm to bear all the losses, can you?”
”You don't need to talk about this matter anymore, that's impossible.”
”Teacher Tang, you're a leading artist from the crosstalk world, surely this…”
”I've already said it. This has nothing to do with me. I won't return the copyright fee that has been paid to me.”
”There are terms on the contract that state that in such a situation, if you don't agree, we can take this to the courts and let our lawyers resolve this.”
”Sure then! I'll wait!”
When the call ended, Tang Dazhang had a dark expression and felt disturbingly uncomfortable. Had he not checked the almanac recently? Why did he seem to have so much bad luck these days? When he had learned of Zhang Ye’s lifted ban, it had left him in a rather bad mood. Then came another incident that left him highly irritated and annoyed! There was a chance of going to court? What the heck! Just who the h.e.l.l have I offended recently!
At the same time.
Several other crosstalk actors who had sold their copyrights received similar calls from Beijing Education Publis.h.i.+ng Firm to return their copyright fees.
One of Tang Dazhang's disciples said, ”What? That's impossible”
An old crosstalk actor who had previously boycotted Zhang Ye said, ”Don't even think about it!”
And then there was the author of A Widow's Spring who was also one of the doubters of Zhang Ye in the literary world. His work was also listed in the take down order from the SARFT. Having his work banned had already left him frustrated, but the publis.h.i.+ng firm was now even asking for the return of the copyright payment? He definitely did not agree to do so!
A scolding battle occurred between the affected parties and Beijing Education Publis.h.i.+ng Firm.
They tried all sorts of ways to force the repayments!
This incident between Beijing Education Publis.h.i.+ng Firm and the affected copyright sellers had even made it to the news by the afternoon of the very same day! Some papers published the news report in an unnoticeable corner of their publications, stating that many of these disagreements were even going to end up being fought in court and would last quite a while before they could be settled.
At home.
Zhang Ye also found out about the news. Seeing this bunch of people who had looked for trouble with him back then and even insulted him, he could only give a wave of his hands and then move on from it. He thought that nothing interesting would come out of this and just casually hummed a song while sitting in front of his computer, continuing to write Legend of Wukong's spin-off.
It seemed as though his scores with those people were finally settled and done with!
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