Chinese TV Station Tried Passing Off Top Gun Footage As Training Exercises

from the now-when-will-the-infringement-suit-hit? dept

Mon, Jan 31st 2011 10:46am — Mike Masnick

Via Gizmodo we learn of the hilarious claim that China Central Television's news broadcast recently showed some imagery purported to show Chinese military training exercises. The only problem is that some folks recognized the footage as coming from the Hollywood movie Top Gun, starring Tom Cruise. You can see the screenshots below, comparing the CCTV news footage (on the left) with the identical frame captures from Top Gun:

Of course, I can only assume that China Central Television did not have a license to show Top Gun on TV. What are the chances that someone in Hollywood decides to sue?

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Filed Under: china, top gun, training, tv footage

69 Comments

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ian, 31 Jan 2011 @ 10:51am

chinese top gun
how do you know that TOP GUN wasn't actual made as a chinese training film???
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Dark Helmet (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 10:54am

Wow...
This story simply Takes My Breath Away....
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Aaron T (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 10:56am

wow
Someone has watched Top Gun way way too many times.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2011 @ 10:58am

Re: Wow...
I think CCTV is on a Highway to a Danger(ous) Zone
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Jay (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:05am

Re: chinese top gun
The Ruskies would be pissed
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:11am

We should be able to vote the stories themselves as funny or insightful (ah, heck, toss in the "inappropriate" tag too, to make the trolls happy). This one certainly deserves the funny vote.
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Jimr (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:12am

Where will they send the Infringement Suit to? Think of all the lost revenue TOP GUN will lose now that they broad cast the final explosion scene? I guesstimate about 42 tillion dollars.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:14am

Official PDRC announcement
Obviously movie film "Top Gun" has stolen aircraft training film from Glorious People's Democratic Republic of China. We condemn these heinous acts of espionage by foreign movie interests and stand proud with active strong military tradition of great China and many brave soldiers who have small resemblance to foreign movie actor Tom Cruise.
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Greg G, 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:15am

Re: Re: Wow...
You can't HANDLE the tru... what?? ahh.. oh, sorry, wrong movie.
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Jason, 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:16am

30 seconds
We went like this, he went like that. I said to Dark Helmet, 'Where'd he go?' Helmet says, "Where'd who go?"
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Sean, 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:19am

Giveaway
I think what gave it away was when they decided to keep the audio track as well.
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Jason, 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:20am

Re:
Put on yer white gloves Jimmer, that's 42 Cuh-tillion!!
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Martian150, 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:28am

Top Gun at CCTV
Oh, come on. There are fans of Top Gun at CCTV. A maverick employee was overcome by "that loving feeling."
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Wes, 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:29am

I can't believe Top Gun stole footage from China's training exercises and and used them in the film!
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Dark Helmet (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:35am

Re: Re: Re: Wow...
It's comments like that that make me realize You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling....
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cseiter (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:35am

Dubbed Version
You've lost that rov'in feerin',
Rooro, that rov'in feerin',
you've rost that ROV'IN feerin',
Now it's gawn, gawn, gawn, rororo
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Jason, 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:36am

Re:
I want somebody's butt, I want it now! I've had it! I WANT SOME BUTTS!!
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Jason, 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:38am

Re: Dubbed Version
Hey Seiter...you stink.
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NR, 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:40am

Re: Re:
Negative Ghost Rider...the pattern's full
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:41am

You people who are joking about this are going to be really surprised to find out that the Chinese pilots are so good that they actually recreated that entire sequence just to show how awesome they are. They even have the exact same explosion!
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MAC, 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:42am

Communist plot...
Obviously, slipping chinese training video into popular western movie is communist plot to take over the world.
Subliminal messages have been seen, will activate in 2012...
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NR, 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:44am

Re:
Polaroid or it didn't happen...
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:51am

Re: Re:
The digital image of the post doesn't cut it?
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Greg G, 31 Jan 2011 @ 11:56am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Wow...
Only because the bathroom counter wasn't really sturdy enough...
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Berenerd (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:01pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Wow...
Goose went up in a GREAT BALLS OF FIRE...much like this thread...
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:04pm

Re: Re:
I don't care if you believe it. I have a bunker that a few women and I will stay in so that we can repopulate the west once China destroys us. I'm just trying to help with a warning buddy.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:08pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Wow...
You don't own that plane, the tax payers do! Son, your ego is writing checks your body can't cash. You've been busted, you lost your qualifications as section leader three times, put in hack twice by me, with a history of high speed passes over five air control towers, and one admiral's daughter!
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Fushta, 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:10pm

OK, one of two things happened:
1) The Chinese use Top Gun movie clips to train their pilots, so it just looks like they are the same clips,
or more realistically,
2) the Chinese use the same special effects team that Top Gun used.
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Chris ODonnell (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:12pm

How long until the MPAA files a copyright claim against the Chinese military?
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:16pm

The movie used Grumman F-14s for the "good guys" and Northrop F-5s for the "bad guys".

Some F-5s were sold many years ago to the Taiwanese government, but certainly never to China.

Who knows? Maybe China and Taiwan are at war and engaging in dogfights, but keeping it a secret from the rest of the world.
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Jason, 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:19pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Wow...
My evaluation of your performance was right on!
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Greg G, 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:21pm

Re: Re: Dubbed Version
He stinks only because you didn't think of it first.
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Greg G, 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:24pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Wow...
because you were inverted....
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Jason, 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:25pm

Re: Re: Re: Dubbed Version
That's pretty arrogant considering the company you're in.
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Robert Ring (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:28pm

So this means Tom Cruise is a Commie, right?
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flyfish, 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:28pm

Last week called, they want their news back
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NullOp, 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:29pm

Caught!
This all reminds me of the 60's when everything was claimed to be a Russian invention. And the "Caught Red Handed" Award goes to.....who do you think? Geez....
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Prashanth (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:34pm

Does anyone remember the Iranian missile photo fiasco from a few years ago? One of the four missiles appears to have failed, so it was pasted over with one of the other missiles (with an identical smoke cloud). This kind of reminds me of that, but on a somewhat larger scale.
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Jason, 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:36pm

Re: Re: Re:
I can see it's dangerous for you, but if the government trusts me, maybe you could.
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Greg G, 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:38pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Dubbed Version
Hmm. How is that arrogant? You didn't come up with it first, and neither did I. I thought it was funny. Apparently you did not. I wonder if you even have a sense of humor. Perhaps China Central Television has take that from you.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:41pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Dubbed Version
http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=That%27s+pretty+arrogant+considering+the+company+you%27re+in.
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Jason, 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:42pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Dubbed Version
PS the first one was a quote, too.
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Jason, 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:43pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Dubbed Version
...slightly modified for cctv
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DS, 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:54pm

Re: Wow...
Come on guys, we should all just lighten up.

Let's all take our shirts off and play volleyball.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 12:58pm

Re: Re: Wow...
"Let's all take our shirts off and play volleyball."

This isn't Catholic School, you sonofabitch....
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cseiter (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 1:03pm

Re: Re: Re: Wow...
I went to a catholic school and I can say that there was no shirtless volleyball being played. I was also an alter boy and a Boy Scout and there was no shirtless volleyball there either. Was I that ugly of a kid that I couldn't get molested?
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Overcast (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 1:18pm

haha, too funny how "governments" really don't have a clue much past your typical forum troll.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 1:21pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Wow...
"Was I that ugly of a kid that I couldn't get molested?"

You know what they say: If you have to ask....
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trilobug, 31 Jan 2011 @ 1:43pm

Re: Wow...
Well played sir.
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Greg G, 31 Jan 2011 @ 1:54pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Dubbed Version
duh. my bad.. I'll go back to my corner now.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2011 @ 1:56pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Wow...
then you can't afford it?
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2011 @ 2:01pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Dubbed Version
while you may have corrected the "argument" his statement still holds true, "...because you didn't think of it first"
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cseiter (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 2:06pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Wow...
That would make sense. I can't afford the therapy, although if I won a settlement I could, but then I would have to be molested, but then I would have to be able to afford therapy...
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Marcus Carab (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 2:09pm

Re:
Well, let's calculate this using MPAA methodology.

Top Gun had a budget of $15-million (Source: Wikipedia). The population of China is 1,331,460,000 (Source: World Bank) - or over 1.3 billion Top Guns that now won't be made. Simple math tells us that 1.997x10^16 or nearly twenty-quadrillion dollars has disappeared as a result of this egregious intellectual property theft.

But that's just the beginning: Top Gun also massively boosted sales of bomber jackets and aviator glasses by around 40%. We can assume by extension that it boosted fighter jet sales approximately the same amount. The cost of an F-16 is around $15-million dollars, so add forty per cent to that and multiply by the number of bomber jackets sold every year, which we don't have a firm stat on but can guess to be around twice the world population since most people own at least two jackets. Add that to our twenty-quadrillion figure, multiply by two (the number of lenses in a pair of Aviators) and you have the truly stomach-churning sum of infinity-million dollars that were lost to this one video alone. Now consider the number of films downloaded on BitTorrent every year and it becomes clear that piracy will bring about the heat death of the universe.
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HarryMonmouth, 31 Jan 2011 @ 2:26pm

Training?
Could the simple explanation be that they are training their military to use bit torrent.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 2:32pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Wow...
I'm now beginning to understand how the Catholic Church did such a good job confusing the shit out of everyone for so long....
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Marcus Carab (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 2:35pm

Re:
weird because last week just called me too and said don't listen to that flyfish guy, he's an asshole
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Jason, 31 Jan 2011 @ 2:50pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Dubbed Version
Yeah, I'm sure he's saying that.
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DS, 31 Jan 2011 @ 3:39pm

Re: Re: Re: Wow...
I thought Catholic School was where they had naked swim classes...
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Paul Hobbs (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 3:41pm

Let's focus on the real issue
I think that with all the amusing banter going on in this thread, we have lost sight of what is really important. Because the CCTV (is there something ironic in the acronym of China's state-controlled TV broadcaster?) used the footage of Top Gun without authorisation (which I admit is an assumption), poor struggling actors like Tom Cruise are being denied their dues - how is Tom expected to survive if people keep watching/using his films without paying for the privilege?
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fogbugzd (profile), 31 Jan 2011 @ 4:05pm

Re: Re:
You forgot the multiplier effect. Granted, you listed secondary and tertiary markets and included approapriately inflated estimates, but industry standard practice is to multiply everything by three to account for the secondary and tertiary effects of the secondary and tertiary effects. Otherwise it was a good effort, and you definitely could have a future in IP economic impact analysis. I particularly liked the fact that you avoided any calculation of possible benefits of the piracy. Things like reviving interest in an old movie or opening up Chinese markets just muddy up otherwise perfectly fine self-serving calculations.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2011 @ 8:11pm

Re: Re:
According to techdirt copying is or least leads to innovation. Clearly, CCTV is a very innovative chinese company or at least well on their way.
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URGthrash, 31 Jan 2011 @ 8:17pm

thats funny, what strikes me as so funny that a Chinese training video would feature only American aircraft, top gun only showed 2 aircraft , the f-14, and the f-5a talon , both are not Chinese aircraft ( even thou im sure half the parts where made in china ;) )

goes to show ya , how the press will force feed garbage to those willing to watch
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jan 2011 @ 9:32pm

Re:
Can aliens be communist?
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Jason, 1 Feb 2011 @ 6:30am

Re: Re: Re:
*According to Techdirt copying is necessary for innovation.

There, fixed that for ya. Simple p->q |= q->p thing, ya dig?
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Feb 2011 @ 7:37am

Re:
In the 80's all the parts where Japanese.
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Jay (profile), 1 Feb 2011 @ 8:44am

Re: Top Gun at CCTV
That's a negative Ghostrider.

They were not cleared for copyright infringement.
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dave (profile), 1 Feb 2011 @ 9:22am

tom FTW
...and after successfully suing and winning his case, China is shut down for copyright infringement.

and that, children, is how Tom Cruise single-handedly defeated china.
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TheEndoftheInterwebs, 11 Feb 2011 @ 6:44am

Chinese caught "sampling" Top Gun
China once again shows that anything cool they do is "borrowed". Almost makes you want to pre-emptively nuke them, i mean send the MPAA after them (same thing??)

If you want to read more, check out http://www.theendoftheinterwebs.com/2011/02/chinese-military-caught-sampling.html
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