旭日阳刚将走向何方?

旭日阳刚的草根味道得到了大家的认可，一首《春天里》的翻唱是不少网友心目中超越原唱的经典，但成名后他们的短板开始暴露，即缺少原创。在被“禁唱”《春天里》之后，缺乏原创作品的旭日阳刚究竟该何去何从？

That's from the online video that made the band Xuri Yanggang famous.

The two poor migrant workers went viral after videotaping themselves singing a cover of the pop song "In Spring."

They were shirtless, smoking cigarettes in a tiny dorm…wailing their heads off.

It struck a note with millions all over the country.

The video website Youku.com crowned it one of the top 10 Chinese online videos of 2010.

Online voters chose them to play at the Spring Festival Gala – which is as big as the Super Bowl Halftime Show in the US.

But this rag to riches story is facing a hurtle.

That's Wang Feng's original version of In Spring.

Wang is a chart-topping singer-songwriter.

He's told the group they must stop using his song.

Wang says when Xuri Yanggang's video FIRST went viral, he didn't mind.

He was happy to help a couple young guys with a dream.

But now they're stars…and set to make big cash off his song.

This calls up some interesting questions about the copyright system in China.

He Fang is a Shanghai copyright lawyer at Rouse, an intellectual property law firm.

He says China has very advanced copyright laws…BUT they are very hard to enforce.

"In China if you want to sue the other party you can not simply give the link and say 'ok I found the infringing materials.' The claimant in most situations will have to produce a notarized copy of that website. It will likely cost you over 2000 RMB for the notarization."

He Fang says that while there's no shortage of small-time copyright infringers in China…

It's usually not worth the time and trouble to go after them.

"This song, In Spring, was reproduced in a remote place in Guangdong province. And Wang Feng is sitting in Beijing. So unless he is very persistent to protect his own rights and take legal actions…it is still very costly to bring the litigation in China, to hire an IP lawyer to do a proper litigation.

That likely won't be necessary, as Xuri Yanggang has apologized to Wang Feng.

They've also invited Wang Feng to write songs for them.

This is where the other issue comes up.

If the band doesn't have any of their own songs, or any real musical training…

Where do they go from here?

Zeng Yu runs Pilot Records, a music label in Beijing.

He says Xuri Yanggang hasn't hit a dead end just yet.

The two men have shown that they have what it takes…to become real musicians.

"Making music is all about having passion and an interest in doing it well. If you really throw yourself into learning and give it everything you've got, you'll be recognized."

But he says the duo still has a long way to go.

"I think if they want to do this well, they need to go study a lot more, and start creating their own music. Or if they want to cover other people's songs, they need to do all the steps to get the copyrights. I think they need to do a lot of things in a more formalized, legal way now."

Zeng Yu says that if Xuri Yanggang doesn't have the money, they could also find a company to HELP them pay for the rights to other artists' songs.

For CRI, I'm Allie Johnson.