More than 8 million pieces of pirated film and television software are easily spread by one website!
The Ministry of public security recently announced 10 typical cases of cracking down on crimes of infringing intellectual property rights, including the “12.15” copyright infringement case cracked by Tianjin public security organs. The detection of the case promptly curbed the spread of a number of pirated film and television works, forming a strong deterrent to criminals.
The reporter deeply interviewed the police handling the case and learned that such cases have low cost, strong concealment and very bad impact. Most of the people involved are young and worthy of vigilance.
massive film and television works are stolen by “chain theft”
On December 14, 2021, the suspect Wei was under the control of the police in his dormitory, and was formally detained according to law on December 15.
“The crime scene is very simple. The crime tool is only a laptop connected to the Internet.” Li Yi, a police officer of the fifth detachment of the environmental food and drug protection corps of Tianjin Public Security Bureau, recalled.
In order to make a profit, Weimou rented an online cloud server in July 2020, set up a video website called “XX film and television”, and released the mobile app of “XX film and television” for external promotion in February 2021. Up to now, no one has been arrested. There are more than 78000 film and television works on the film and television website and mobile app. Film and television works such as Changjin lake, which was just launched online at that time, can be viewed here.
Screenshot of “XX film and television” mobile app. (provided by Tianjin Public Security Bureau)
In order to reduce costs, Weimou later used “chain stealing technology”, which made the content updated faster and more concealed. In the whole case, the establishment of a website, the promotion of app, the purchase of cloud server and video management software, and the link to overseas illegal film and television websites were all completed on the network. Li Yi said, “after the above crime chain is successfully built, as long as a certain computer is not turned on and connected to the Internet, the website will be automatically updated”.
However, this seemingly simple operation has brought no small “return” to Weimou. As of the time when no one was arrested, “so and so film and television” had obtained hundreds of thousands of illegal income such as member registration fee and advertising fee.
using technology infringement for profit violates the criminal law
At the age of 25, Wei worked for an electronic equipment company when he began to commit a crime. According to Rong Xiaodong, the police handling the case and the Hangkong Road police station of Tianjin Binhai New Area Public Security Bureau, he confessed to the facts of the case and knew that what he had done might violate the law.
It is understood that there are many such cases of infringement of film and television copyright. The suspect involved in the case are relatively young. Because they do not need to pay too much time cost, most of them also have their own jobs. Many people set up websites out of love to gather some enthusiasts and share film and television works.
The suspect identified the crime tools at the scene. (provided by Tianjin Public Security Bureau)
“Weimou first built a wechat group. People in the group often asked him for film and television resources. Gradually, he found it profitable, began to develop members for profit and embarked on the road of crime.” Li Yi said.
For the purpose of profit, copying, distributing and disseminating its written works, music, art, audio-visual works, computer software and other works stipulated by laws and administrative regulations to the public through information networks without the permission of the copyright owner, with a large amount of illegal income or other serious circumstances, is a crime of copyright infringement according to the provisions of China’s criminal law.
“China’s efforts to protect intellectual property rights continue to increase, but there are still some people who make illegal profits and slide into the abyss of crime. In fact, similar acts have caused serious interference to the genuine market and seriously affected the original driving force of film and television creation and innovation, which must be resolutely cracked down on.” Zhao Naidong, leader of the fifth detachment of the environmental food and drug protection corps of Tianjin Public Security Bureau, said.
fixed evidence chain protection of intellectual property
At the end of 2020, after receiving the clues of the case transferred by the cultural market department, Tianjin public security organ immediately began to investigate. Although the case was clear, the whole process of handling the case was very difficult.
“The websites linked by Weimou are foreign illegal websites, and the servers of those websites are outside the country, so there is no way to block the source.” Li Yi said.
In order to solve this problem, the environmental food and drug protection corps of Tianjin Public Security Bureau and the Public Security Bureau of Binhai New Area “deep binding operation”, while paying close attention to the dynamics of “so and so film” and avoiding startling the snake, while communicating with the procuratorial organ, finally completed the key evidence collection links such as evidence fixation.
“We recorded the operation and broadcasting of 2000 film and television works on the website, involving some foreign film and television works. We also asked relevant film and television associations in China to confirm the infringement. Finally, we determined that the amount of infringing film and television resources on the website was more than 78000, fixed the whole chain of evidence, and began to close the network.” Rong Xiaodong said.
Seizing the psychology of “greedy for small and cheap” of some viewers and making illegal profits by using “chain stealing technology”, criminals steal not only the film and television resources of regular websites and the painstaking efforts of creators, but also the serious damage to the innovation environment of market economy. Chinese laws strictly protect the intellectual property rights of each film and television work. A good film and television innovation environment needs to be maintained by you and me!
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