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Recently, the tort case in which singer Yang Kun sued the internet celebrity duo "Sichuan Fenda" (Li Mou and Jiang Mou) has aroused widespread public concern. This controversy is not only a conflict between celebrities and internet celebrities, but also reflects the legal dilemmas in the protection of the right of reputation and the right of name in the context of cyberspace. As legal practitioners, we have the responsibility to conduct in-depth analysis of this incident and clarify the relevant legal points therein for the public.

Chronology of Events

Since last October, "Sichuan Fanda" has been continuously posting imitation videos on major online platforms. In the videos, the two individuals deliberately replicate the mentor image of Yang Kun in *The Voice of China*, frequently use the popular online meme "32 concerts" related to Yang Kun, imitate his unique singing style and iconic gestures, and adopt an exaggerated and comedic performance approach, which has quickly garnered huge traffic. These videos were forcibly removed due to infringement risks, and their account was also suspended for a period of time. However, "Sichuan Fanda" continued to release similar content after the account was unblocked. After this year's Spring Festival, the two individuals received a summons from the Beijing Internet Court. The case of dispute over online tort liability filed by Yang Kun against them is scheduled to be heard in March. Yang Kun's claims include deleting the infringing videos, making a public apology on multiple platforms, and paying compensation for mental distress, among other remedies.

In-depth Analysis from a Legal Perspective

Infringement of the Right to Reputation

Article 1024 of the *Civil Code of the People's Republic of China* explicitly grants civil subjects the right to reputation, and strictly prohibits any organization or individual from infringing upon others' reputation through such acts as insult, defamation and the like. As a comprehensive social evaluation of an individual's morality, prestige, competence, credit and other aspects, reputation is an important component of the personal dignity of civil subjects and is under strict protection of the law. Article 1027 further emphasizes that where a literary or artistic work takes a specific person as the object of description and contains insulting or defamatory content, it shall constitute infringement upon the right to reputation of others, and the tortfeasor shall bear civil liability in accordance with the law.

In the field of music, singer Yang Kun has established a highly recognizable public image by virtue of his unique singing style, distinctive stage performance style and long-accumulated works. A series of acts committed by "Sichuan Fenda" are suspected of crossing the red line of infringement upon the right of reputation.

First, they take imitating Yang Kun's voice as the selling point of their video creation. Li, a member of the group, uses "A Kun" as his online name, which is highly similar to Yang Kun's full name, and commercial logos related to Yang Kun also appear in the video background. These acts will inevitably lead the public to closely associate "Sichuan Fenda" with Yang Kun when watching the videos, which satisfies the key element of "pointing to a specific person" in the determination of infringement upon the right of reputation.

Second, the creation of "Sichuan Fenda" is saturated with a large number of vulgar and vilifying elements. In terms of song adaptation, the lyrics are tampered with to contain indecent content such as "throwing feces", which completely distorts the artistic connotation of Yang Kun's original work. During the performance, exaggerated and distorted body movements including "pouting buttocks" and "shifting gears" are adopted to portray an absurd and ludicrous image in a playful and vulgar manner. Such creative method, through disparagement and humiliation, misleads the public's perception of Yang Kun, degrades his reputation status in the social evaluation system, and produces negative impacts on his musical talent and industry prestige in particular, which satisfies the criteria for identifying insult and defamation under the constituent elements of infringement upon the right to reputation.

2. Determination of Infringement of the Right of Portrait

Pursuant to Article 1019 of the *Civil Code of the People's Republic of China*, no organization or individual may infringe upon the right of portraiture of others by means of distortion, defacement, forgery through information technology, or other such methods. Without the consent of the portraiture right holder, no one may create, use or make public the portrait of the right holder, unless otherwise provided by law. Portraits are not limited to photographs or visual recordings, but also include all identifiable external images of specific natural persons presented through various means.

The act of "Sichuan Fenda" imitating Yang Kun bears obvious suspicion of infringement upon the right to portrait. On the one hand, the two persons deliberately replicate Yang Kun's mentor styling in *The Voice of China*, ranging from wearing similar outfits, imitating his signature hairstyle to reproducing his iconic on-stage poses. These external image features are highly identifiable, sufficient for the general public to closely associate the two with Yang Kun. However, no evidence in the whole process indicates that they have obtained Yang Kun's consent and authorization for the use of his image features, which prima facie meets the circumstance of "using a portrait without consent" as specified for the establishment of portrait right infringement.

On the other hand, "Sichuan Fenda" vilified and tarnished Yang Kun's image in its videos through such means as exaggerated and vulgar movements and tampering with song content. Even if it does not directly use photos or videos of Yang Kun himself, such acts still constitute infringement upon Yang Kun's right to portrait. According to the provisions of the laws of China, even if the act is not conducted for profit-making purposes, it shall constitute a tort as long as there is an act of vilifying or tarnishing another person's portrait.

3. Risk of Copyright Infringement

Copyright arises from literary, artistic and scientific works and confers special rights on civil subjects. If "Sichuan Fenda" releases adapted works modeled on Yang Kun's original song without authorization, it may infringe upon Yang Kun's copyrights in the work, including but not limited to the right of adaptation and the right of communication to the public on information networks, and thus runs the risk of infringement.

Lawyers' Professional Legal Advice

At a time when online creation is increasingly vibrant, the protection of public figures' right of reputation and right of name faces new challenges. For online creators, creative expression shall abide by the bottom line of the law, entertainment and banter shall comply with the principles of legality and reasonableness, and obtaining attention through tortious acts such as insult and defamation is strictly prohibited. When their rights and interests are infringed upon, public figures shall also promptly resort to legal weapons to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests. Only through the joint efforts of all parties can a healthy and orderly cyberspace be constructed.