Breaking! Bureau chief dies from drinking with village party secretary; official response: Bureau chief suspended pending investigation
1. ZAO updates user agreement, deleting clause allowing free use of users' portrait rights
Recently, an AI face-swapping app called ZAO became wildly popular. Users only need to upload their own photos to replace any face in the app's video素材 with their own, transforming into the protagonist of the clip with highly realistic effects.
However, users soon discovered significant risks in using this app. ZAO's user agreement required users to grant "fully free, irrevocable, perpetual, sublicensable, and re-licensable rights" to their facial photos, and stated: "If you replace the face in user content with your own or another person's face, you agree or ensure that the portrait rights holder agrees to grant ZAO and its affiliates worldwide, fully free, irrevocable, perpetual, sublicensable, and re-licensable rights."
This meant that once a user uploaded a photo to ZAO, the platform could use the portrait arbitrarily, and users had to bear the potential infringement of intellectual property and portrait rights from posting videos.
On September 5, "ZAO" updated its user agreement, removing the controversial clause about "perpetual, free use of user data" from the privacy terms.
(ZAO's updated user agreement)
A lawyer from Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm stated that user privacy rights are only one aspect. ZAO's main operation involves users replacing a character's face in film and television works with their own. Under the previous agreement, users had to resolve copyright and portrait rights issues related to the素材 themselves. If the relevant authorization was not secured and rights holders pursued legal action, although the platform could not be exempted from legal liability through the agreement, users would bear primary responsibility.
2. "Walking to earn money" — Qubu has been officially placed on file for investigation.
Recently, an app called "Qubu" that claims "you can make money just by walking" has become popular on social media, attracting many participants. According to Qubu's introduction, users are promised that as long as they walk 5,000 steps a day, they can earn "candies." These candies can either be exchanged for cash or used to redeem gifts in Qubu's online mall.
Throughout the game, candy is undoubtedly crucial, and there are two ways to obtain it: one is by continuously walking and completing daily tasks, and the other is by recruiting downlines. Among these, recruiting downlines is the fastest way to acquire candy. Looking at the entire operational model of Qubu, no actual goods are produced during the process. Such an app, in essence, relies on recruiting people to exchange for money, which is undoubtedly a development model similar to pyramid schemes.
In response, a netizen posted a letter to the mayor's mailbox on the official website of the Changsha Municipal People's Government. The content of the letter read: "Hunan Qubu Network Co., Ltd. is rumored to be an illegal pyramid scheme. Please have the relevant departments verify whether this is true and give me a satisfactory reply. Thank you!"
Soon, the mayor of Changsha also gave a response."Hunan Qubu Network Technology Co., Ltd. is suspected of illegal pyramid schemes, illegal fundraising, financial fraud, and other illegal activities, and has been placed under investigation by relevant authorities!"
A 7-year-old boy's intestines were severely damaged by a fountain spray. Who should be held responsible?
On August 28, in Fuzhou, Jiangxi, a 7-year-old boy was playing in a musical fountain when water entered his body through the anus, causing severe muscle damage in the affected area. The boy's intestines have been healed, but he can only defecate through an abdominal stoma. How powerful is the impact of a fountain water jet? A 2-centimeter nozzle can produce a water column about 10 meters high, with a striking force exceeding 3 kilograms. A 5-centimeter nozzle can easily lift a person weighing 50 kilograms in less than 3 seconds. (Source: The Beijing News)
Searching online for related terms reveals that this is not the first time such an incident has occurred.
A lawyer from Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm stated that fountain-related injuries happen frequently. In judicial practice, liability is generally determined by comprehensively assessing whether the fountain management had safety warning deficiencies and whether the victim was at fault. Remind friends and family to prevent such tragedies from happening again.
A woman met a man at a bar and agreed to go to a hotel, only to wake up and find a different person beside her!
On August 19, a woman in Yingtan, Jiangxi, reported to the police that she had been raped by a stranger in her hotel room. Police investigation revealed that the woman met a thin man named Jiang at a bar, and they agreed to go to a hotel. After the woman fell asleep, Jiang invited his friend, a heavier man named Zhou, to share a one-night stand. Zhou entered the room, and Jiang instructed him not to turn on the lights and to keep the room dark... (Source: News Bro)
When the woman woke up, she found the man beside her had turned into a fat man named Zhou, and immediately called the police!
A lawyer from Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm stated that violating a woman's will to engage in sexual relations constitutes rape, and the two individuals are suspected of joint crime. However, this also highlights a sad reality: if you're good-looking, it's called a serendipitous encounter; if you're ugly... you just want to call the police.
5. Bureau chief drinks to death village party secretary, official response: Bureau chief suspended pending investigation
On August 26, netizens reported that on the evening of August 20, Wang Junhua, village party secretary of Lushan Village, Matouqiao Town, Xinning County, Hunan, died after drinking alcohol, with participants including Wang Huizi, director of the Xinning County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau.
On the afternoon of August 26, the Publicity Department of the Xinning County Party Committee issued a statement titled "Explanation of the Situation Regarding a Village Official in Matouqiao Town Who Died After Sudden Illness Following a Private Dinner with Alcohol," stating that after receiving reports that on the evening of August 20, 2019, a village official in Matouqiao Town drank alcohol during a private dinner and later died after failed rescue efforts due to sudden illness, the Xinning County Commission for Discipline Inspection promptly intervened to investigate. The county party committee has decided to suspend Comrade Wang Huizi, secretary of the party group and director of the county market supervision and administration bureau, who participated in the dinner, from his post pending investigation.
A lawyer from Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm stated that personal safety during shared drinking is primarily based on self-protection, supplemented by others' duty of care. However, if urging someone to drink causes injury or death, the person urging may not only bear civil liability but could also face criminal responsibility.
Article 37 of China's Tort Liability Law stipulates that managers of public places such as hotels, shopping malls, banks, stations, and entertainment venues, or organizers of mass activities, who fail to fulfill their safety obligations and cause harm to others, shall bear tort liability. If a fellow drinker engages in urging alcohol consumption and such behavior causes harm to another, the person urging alcohol consumption shall bear tort liability. If an elder or leader participates in drinking, even without urging alcohol consumption but allows the victim to drink excessively, they shall bear equal liability with the person urging alcohol consumption, or the proportion of liability may be determined based on the specific circumstances of the case.
If urging alcohol consumption leads to the death of the other party, it may even constitute the crime of negligent homicide, requiring criminal liability.
