The publisher of the autobiography of China's last emperor is
seeking for the book's copyright to be declared an "intestate
property" in order to resolve a longstanding ownership dispute.
The Beijing-based Qunzhong Publishing House filed a suit at the
People's Court of Beijing's Xicheng District, applying for
intestate status on the copyright of The First Half of My Life -
From Emperor to Citizen, a long-time bestseller by former child
ruler Aisin Giorro Puyi.
The court published a proclamation in the People's Court
Daily on September 25, after verifying the application,
saying, "The copyright will transfer to the State if no one claims
ownership within a year, and profits from the book sales will be
nationalized according to the law".
The publishing house would not comment on why it was seeking the
declaration, but it comes after reports that Puyi's younger
brother, Jin Youzhi, originally named Aisin Giorro Puren, was
seeking to claim the copyright.
An editor of the publishing house surnamed Xu declined to
comment on the issue, but told?that "the copyright ownership
is in dispute".
The publishing house had a long dispute with the 89-year-old
Jin, according to previous news reports.
The Beijing News yesterday quoted Jin as saying that he would
"definitely claim the copyright" and hold a press conference on
Friday to "further clarify the issue".
Mu Xiaojun, a lawyer with the Beijing-based Zhong Fu Law Office,
said, "There was no reason for the publishing house to file the
suit applying for intestate status as Jin is legally entitled to
the copyright after the death of Puyi and his wife."
"It is the private property of Puyi's family for 50 years, the
copyright's legal duration... and the publisher has taken drastic
measures to handle the dispute," the lawyer said.
In December last year, Jin lost a lawsuit claiming ownership of
the copyright on Puyi's image after the Palace Museum held an
exhibition on Puyi's life.
But the Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court ruled that Puyi
was a public figure whose life was "closely connected with China's
history", and reproductions of his image did not infringe on the
family's rights.
Wang Qingxiang, a research fellow with Northeast China's Jilin
Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, said Puyi was not the
biological brother of Jin, who was adopted as the stepson of the
Qing emperor in 1908.
The autobiography, a memoir of the first half of the 20th
Century seen through Puyi's eyes, depicts his changes in fortune
after the last dynasty of China collapsed in 1911.
Puyi started the book in 1957 and the government published it in
1964 after editing by many historians and experts.
Puyi died of illness in Beijing in 1967 and his wife Li Shuxian
held the copyright until she died in 1997.
But the couple, who left no legal will, had no offspring to take
over the ownership.
In 1908, when Puyi was almost three years old, he ascended the
imperial throne as the 10th ruler of the Qing Dynasty, the last
dynasty of China's feudal system. Less than three years later, the
1911 Revolution forced his abdication.
He was enthroned by Japanese invaders as a puppet emperor in
Northeast China in the early 1930s, but was dethroned three years
later.
(Xinhua News Agency October 12, 2007)