Sun Honglei's First Legal Victory! Gaming Companies Compensate $30,000

According to reports from The Paper, on October 13th, the Chengdu Internet Court issued its judgment in the nation's first-ever case of voice infringement related to TV and film dialogue.

This case involved two defendant gaming companies who, without authorization, used audio clips from the plaintiff, actor Sun Honglei, in their online games for profit. Sun Honglei claimed that the defendants, for profit, developed and designed the infringing games without his consent and, as a result, sought a court order for the defendants to publicly apologize and compensate him for economic losses and emotional distress.

After careful consideration, the Chengdu Internet Court found that a person's voice and image represent their personal rights. However, the character designs in the games were clearly based on the roles from TV and film, staying true to the original character settings. Objectively, the game characters were unmistakably tied to the characters from the TV series.

As a result, the court ruled in the first instance that the defendants should publicly apologize to the plaintiff, Sun Honglei, and compensate him with $30,000 for economic losses. This verdict marks Sun Honglei's first legal victory in an infringement case.