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The video blogger "Dong Laosi Talking about Cars" (hereinafter referred to as "Teacher Dong"), who was complained by Xiaomi for calling Lei Jun "Jun'er", recently received a lawsuit notice from Ideal Auto, demanding him to pay 1 million yuan in compensation. The incident was caused by a joke video that alluded to Ideal MEGA-related content.

On August 13, Mr. Dong responded to a reporter from Dute News that he had "now appointed a lawyer to respond to the lawsuit." As a content creator, he believes that legality, rationality, and compliance are the prerequisites for his creation. A staff member from Ideal Auto's public relations department responded to the Dute News reporter: "The video has caused a bad impact on our company. Ideal is taking legal measures to protect its rights. The case is currently under trial."

A 45-second short video led Ideal to sue for millions of dollars

On August 10, "Dong Laosi Talks about Cars" posted a video on Douyin saying that he had received a notice of prosecution against him from Beijing Ideal Auto Co., Ltd. in the Wujin District People's Court of Changzhou City.

The reporter of Dute News saw on the page of "Notice of Response to the Lawsuit of Wujin District People's Court of Changzhou City" provided by Teacher Dong that the plaintiffs are Changzhou Branch of Beijing Ideal Automobile Co., Ltd. and Beijing Ideal Automobile Co., Ltd., and the defendants are Jinan Arc Sports Culture Media Co., Ltd., the company to which "Teacher Dong" belongs, Teacher Dong himself and another related person. The case is a dispute over reputation rights.

Ideal Auto confirmed the lawsuit to a reporter from Dute News, saying: "On March 6 this year, our company discovered that the Douyin account 'Dong Lao Si Talks about Cars' released a short video titled "Crazy New Cars." The video contains a lot of insulting information that denigrates the Ideal Auto brand and MEGA models, causing adverse effects on our company." According to the relevant content of the response notice, Ideal Auto made three demands: first, to delete the video, second, to make a public apology within 30 days, and third, to pay 1 million yuan in compensation and bear the litigation costs.

Ideal MEGA is Ideal's first pure electric model and also its first MPV model. It was released on March 1 this year. After MEGA was launched, its sales were not as good as expected. CEO Li Xiang once expressed his reflections on MEGA in an internal letter.

Teacher Dong said that "Crazy New Car" remade a scene from the movie "Crazy Racing". After Ideal complained, it was removed from the Douyin platform the next day. In the remade short video, Teacher Dong played two roles, one buying a car and the other selling it. In the part involving the vehicle introduction, the video used words such as "grand outer coffin", "luxurious inside", "large enough screen tomb", and "flexible control". The video did not mention words such as Ideal and Ideal MEGA, but there was a photo of Ideal MEGA covered with a black cloth from the Internet. At present, the video is still visible on the B station account.

Blogger: The video is not a review, it is a humorous and funny skit

According to Dute News, "Crazy New Car" received more than 59,000 likes and more than 18,000 comments on Douyin. At that time, Mr. Dong had 180,000 followers on Douyin. Ideal believes that the video has enough influence to have a negative impact on the MEGA model and cause a decline in sales.

In this regard, Mr. Dong believes that when the account posted the video, the MEGA model had already been on the market, and the video was removed within 24 hours of being online. It is unreasonable to say that the video affected the sales of MEGA. "Ideal believes that most of the works on my account have more than 10,000 likes, and it is difficult for ordinary accounts to achieve such high traffic. It is a marketing account. They believe that the video constitutes infringement of the MEGA model, damages the image of entrepreneurs, and causes losses to the national economy."

Mr. Dong said he "did not understand" the facts and reasons listed by Ideal. He emphasized that the company account was not a marketing account and had not signed a contract with any MCN agency. MEGA's image and sales were mainly determined by its design and price.

“Based on the standard of our previous works, it is normal to have over 10,000 likes. Our creative content is all secondary creations based on hot topics and results. What we output are not serious car review videos, but sketches with the purpose of humor and comedy.” Teacher Dong told reporters that he had previously created content about football and cars with the same creative ideas and the same scale. This is the first time he has been sued.

At present, Jinan Arc Sports Culture Media Co., Ltd. and Mr. Dong have appointed lawyers to respond to the lawsuit. On August 12, a staff member of Ideal Auto’s public relations department said in an interview with Dute News: “The case is currently under trial in court, so it is inconvenient to respond to more details. We believe that the court will make a fair ruling based on the facts and in accordance with the law.”

A reporter from Dute noticed that on March 5 this year, Ideal Auto sent letters to multiple platforms, requesting the relevant platforms to delete the infringing information and reserving the right to pursue legal liability in response to the large number of pictures, videos and remarks that were posted, forwarded and commented on on the Internet that contained insulting information that defamed the Ideal Auto brand and MEGA models.

Once popular because of "Jun'er", the blogger said that the interaction with Xiaomi is positive

This is not the first time that Teacher Dong has become the focus of attention.

In February this year, his account posted several videos related to Lei Jun, the head of Xiaomi. Because he repeatedly called Lei Jun "Jun'er", Xiaomi complained and removed all the videos involved. Since then, "Jun'er" has become popular on the Internet and has been quoted and ridiculed by netizens many times. In July, Lei Jun responded to "Jun'er"'s ridicule in a self-deprecating tone in his annual speech "Courage", saying that Xiaomi's car manufacturing is a well-thought-out strategic decision.

In response to this, Mr. Dong said in response to the news that "it is a positive interaction with Xiaomi". He further added that "Jun'er" is a more phenomenal word they created. For each short video created around Xiaomi, there is no slander or defamation in itself, but it is used to slander and defame when it is quoted by other creators on the Internet.

Teacher Dong mentioned that Xiaomi as a whole affirms positive creations and welcomes them to create more. The removal of the "Jun'er" video was the same operation applied to all the defamatory videos on the platform, and was not targeted at "Dong Laosi Talks about Cars."

Many "soldier-related" videos on "Dong Laosi Talks about Cars" have been removed from the platform.

When asked by a reporter from Dute News how to control the scale of creation and whether these two incidents would affect his creation, Mr. Dong said that content creation itself is based on legality, rationality and compliance. At the same time, he said: "We are a small family and a small business, and people will not pay too much attention to our life and death, but this incident has made many self-media bloggers like us think about whether they can write jokes, post jokes, perform skits, satirize, and create secondary interpretations of social phenomena and make their own voices heard. I think it is worth thinking about."

It is reported that the defendant is still appealing the territorial jurisdiction of the case. The trial date has not been set.

(Author: Li Yilu, a reporter from Dute News)