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Shanzhai!

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

from the Montreal Gazette on theChinese pavilion at Expo 2010:

The trouble started more than a week ago when Expo organizers were confronted with suspicions a high-profile promotional song advertising the World's Fair featuring action hero/singer Jackie Chan and a host of other Chinese stars, 2010 Waiting for You, borrowed freely from a 13-year-old Japanese tune, Stay the Way You Are, by Mayo Okamoto.

Expo organizers did not actually admit plagiarism, but they hastily pulled the song from the airwaves because of "copyright issues," according to their website.

The next potential shanzhai problem came to light at a news conference late last week when a U.S. reporter noted the similarity between the Expo mascot Haibao and Gumby, the title character in a cartoon series that ran on North American television for 35 years, starting in 1957.

Full post as published by IPBiz on April 27, 2010 (boomark / email).