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Buren Bayaer with his wife and his niece, is a lyricist and singer of the hot Inner Mongolian song "Three Lucky Treasures".(file photo)
AS Buren Bayaer, lyricist and singer of the hot Inner Mongolian song "Three Lucky Treasures" is protesting comic versions of his song, including "Lucky Bun," he is now being accused of plagiarism, the Yangtze Evening News reported Sunday.
After "Three Lucky Treasures" became popular throughout China following Buren's performance on the CCTV Spring Festival gala, netizens began questioning similarities of the song's parents-child-dialogue with the French song "Le Papillon." The song is the theme song of the 2002 French movie "Le Papillon."
The newspaper said after French director Philippe Muyl listened to "Three Lucky Treasures" on the Internet, he recognized it as plagiarizing "Le Papillon" in terms of rhythm and dialogue format. Murl expressed his anger at the plagiarism through French media and is reportedly suing in a French court.
Buren rebuffed the report, saying "Three Lucky Treasures" was written in 1994, based on a daily dialogue between his daughter and himself. He says that in 1997, he recorded the song on 500 cassettes and gave 200 copies to his French friends.
"In terms of the timeframe, it's impossible for me to have plagiarized 'Le Papillon.' To me it sounds reasonable that the French song used the style of 'Three Lucky Treasures,'" Buren said. "Why do people have doubts about my work just because it became popular later than 'Le Papillon'?"
Mr. Luo, Buren's publicist, also questioned the report of a lawsuit. "We have not received any summons from France. Even if Philippe Muyl wants to sue us, we are not at all worried because we have proof that the song was made in 1997. Buren's friends and relatives in France who received the cassettes can testify."
Tang Zhaozhi, a lawyer from China Copyright Center, does not regard "Three Lucky Treasures" as plagiarism. He said a few similar syllables do not constitute plagiarism under Chinese copyright law. A musical work should be examined by national professional music copyright organizations to decide whether it constitutes plagiarism, Tang said. Editem (March 14, 2006)
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