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The popularity of the remixing culture in China is not very common, that most people's understanding of "remix songs" is only limited to a nightclub or a DJ's concert setting. The music based entertainment show "The Remix" is differenet from any of the music shows aired in China before, that it tries to compensate for the loss of the remix culture on TV. It's goal is to bring the remix culture to a wider range of audience. The show consists of four celebrity judges and various celebrity singers to compete with each other. Each competitor has access to a remix producer (in charge of music arrangement) and a DJ (in charge of beat matching during the performance). There are numerous episodes of this show, and at the end of the season each winning song from every episode will be made into a remix CD as a whole. "The Remix" quickly gained popularity and attention even before it was aired as this show tries to rearrange familiar songs that almost everyone knows in to something new.
Even though "The Remix" is able to attract a group of audience, it also created controversies. Recently, the debate about the issue of fair use on the show is popular to the point that it became one of the most searched topics on the internet. The controversy quickly spreaded when Sephirex Wang, the son of the richest man in China (who is also well known for being rebellious), posted on his Weibo page, the "Chinese Twitter". He forwarded three posts and commented that one of the artists is just plainly copying, which he specifically pointed out an artist named Da Zhang Wei. Among many other singers who are invited to the show, Da Zhang Wei is being criticized because he is well known for remixing songs and transforming old songs into remix versions or pop versions. He was the center of controversies for fair use even before this show aired on TV. Da Zhang Wei wrote a post on his public page saying that he did borrowed the song from Zedd out of respect because the rhythm fits well with the song, and this should not be considered cheating because he’s only doing it for a remix show rather than publishing this song to make money on every download. From his response on his public page, he says that he is not a music maker but a music porter. He is using his talent for remixing to play around with songs and deliver them to the audience in a new form. The interesting thing is that, as a remix artist himself, Zedd didn’t think of this in the same way. The song Candyman also derives from another song. It is the remake of the 1970's classic song The Candy Man. On Twitter, Zedd responded to this problem, saying that Da Zhang Wei is "blatantly" stealing his work.
Links to Da Zhang Wei's full performance and Zedd's song:
Links to parts where the two songs are similar: (listen closely to the background rhythms and beats)
Zedd's response on Twitter to this fair use controversy:
| Four Factors of Fair Use( Stanford University Libraries) | Definition | Argument |
|---|---|---|
| The Purpose and Character of Your Use | "Has the material you have taken from the original work been transformed by adding new expression or meaning? Was value added to the original by creating new information, new aesthetics, new insights, and understandings?" | Da Zhang Wei used Zedd's background rhythm as part of his song while he sings the lyrics from another song. The purpose of the song is to promote the remix culture and the creation of the song is for the effect of the show. When Zedd responded on Twitter, he might not know that the show is about remix since the person who asked him whether if it's fair use of not only showed him a portion of the video. |
| The Nature of the Copyrighted Work | "Because the dissemination of facts or information benefits the public, you have more leeway to copy from factual works such as biographies than you do from fictional works such as plays or novels." | Even though Da Zhang Wei was paid to be on "The Remix", he is not making money off of this one song as he is not publishing this song personally as his own work. The show's sponsor is publishing the songs from every episode online for people to download, and they are free of charge. |
| The Amount and Substantiality of the Portion Taken | "The less you take, the more likely that your copying will be excused as a fair use. However, even if you take a small portion of a work, your copying will not be a fair use if the portion taken is the “heart” of the work." | Da Zhang wei only took the background rhythm of Zedd's Candyman to put in his song along with other songs. You have to listen closely to be able to distinguish that the background rhythm came from Zedd's Candyman. Also, the backgroun rhythm does not last for the whole song, but only a portion of it. |
| The Effect of the Use Upon the Potential Market | "whether your use deprives the copyright owner of income or undermines a new or potential market for the copyrighted work. Depriving a copyright owner of income is very likely to trigger a lawsuit. This is true even if you are not competing directly with the original work." | People who want to listen to Candyman are obviously not going to download Da Zhang Wei's song as a substitute, because the only thing they have in common is a portion of the background music. Da Zhang Wei didn't create the song for his new album. He only did it because the show requried him to form a remix song, which he though Candyman's rhythm fit well with the whole song. |
##Limitations of Fair Use (17 U.S. Code § 107)
- Criticism
- Comment
- News reporting
- Teaching
- Scholarship
- Research
Da Zhang Wei's use of Zedd's Candyman beats doesn't really fit in any of the categories listed above. He will have a hard time defending himself for taking Zedd's beats. However, I think that Da Zhang Wei should not pay full responsibility if Zedd decides to sue him. Da Zhang Wei didn't intentionally take the original credit away from Zedd. On his personal web page, he stated that he borrowed the beats out of respect because it fits well with the song (despite that he posted this after people accused him for "stealing"). Also, I think the program staff don't have a good understanding of copyright. Since the show that they're making is a remix show, they should have thought about the possibility that artists might borrow other artists work, which some people consider it "stealing". In Da Zhang Wei's case, I think it's very hard to buy copyright from Zedd just for the show. Not only it's an international copyright case, but also it's not easy to negotiate the price. Since the remix culture is not very popular in China, Da Zhang Wei is more well known then Zedd. Da Zhang Wei made his first appearance on TV in 1998 as the member of the first teen rock band, and over the past 18 years he gained publicity and fans all over China. It's highly possible that many viewers who watch "The Remix" are his fans, and not people who are interested in the copyright controversy. On LeEco (similar to YouTube), one of the largest online video companies in China, the number of views didn't increase at all (some later episodes even have less views than previous episodes) after the copyright controversy episode, so there's not really an evidence showing that after Da Zhang Wei "stole" Zedd's beats he got more publicity.