Original title: Using pirated film and TV works to attract traffic and money (theme)
Fujian Mingxi: Comprehensive review of chat logs, server data and other evidence to correctly identify infringing works (subtitle)
Procuratorate Daily reporter Zhang Renping reporter Gao Shu
“I know that publishing pirated film and TV work on personal websites and apps is a crime. I thought I was earning some advertising fees this way and that it wouldn’t lead to serious consequences. No I expected that I would be convicted and sentenced.” Ke admitted. This copyright infringement case handled by the Procuratorate of Mingxi County, Fujian Province involved online copyright infringement in audiovisual works of films and TV series. The procuratorate organ correctly identified the infringement through a comprehensive review of mobile phone chat records, backend data network platform and server and other evidence.In January this year, the case was chosen as a typical case of procuratorial organs punishing copyright infringement crimes in accordance with the law issued by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.
During the process of handling the case, the procuratorate intervened in advance in accordance with the law, conducted additional investigations on its own, and correctly determined the number of violations and illegal criminal profits. At the same time, we focus on recovering stolen goods and reversing losses, promoting compensation and settlement, reducing the burden on rights holders filing separate compensation lawsuits, and protecting the rights and legitimate interests of copyright holders.
In April 2023, Ke was at the court hearing for the copyright infringement case.
Take a chance
Make money with free movies
One day in August 2021, Ke learned from a technology QQ group that someone had created a personal website and app and uploaded pirated movies and TV series to attract netizens to watch. After the website increased, they made money by accepting advertisements . Ke, who majored in computer science, felt that this was a low-cost, high-return way to make money. With the idea of giving it a try, he bought a website and the website’s content for 1,200 yuan through friends in the QQ technology group. .Various services and some cinema app.
After that, Ke used the computer technology he learned and used crawling software to collect the data of the playback addresses of the web versions of movies and TV series from major video websites, stored it on the server he rented, and through technical analysis, the data and stored in The film and television works on the server are reprinted to the website operated and managed by him and a specific cinema app, and are provided to netizens to watch for free.
While operating the website and app, Ke uploaded popular pirated movies and TV series and submitted the website link to the search engine, attracting a large number of netizens to browse. At the same time, he put an App download link on the website to lead netizens to download a certain theater app that he was operating.
At the beginning of 2022, some advertisers discovered that Ke’s website and App had a large number of views and downloads, and contacted Ke to place paid advertisements on their websites and Apps.
In May 2022, the Public Security Bureau of Sanming City, Fujian Province received a report from the right holder. After filing the case, the case was transferred to the Public Security Bureau of Mingxi County for investigation on suspected copyright infringement. On June 1 of the one year, the public security agency released Ke on bail pending trial. . The case was also listed as one jointly supervised by five departments including the Copyright Administration Office of the Central Propaganda Department, the National Anti-Pornography and Anti-Illegal Affairs Office, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the Procuratorate of the Supreme People.
From the incident, Ke had uploaded more than 50,000 free movies and TV series of various kinds and received more than 350,000 yuan in advertising remuneration.
lead an investigation
The number of offending works identified comprehensively
After Ke arrived at the case, the Mingxi County Procuratorate was invited by the public security organ to intervene in advance in accordance with the law in accordance with the mechanism for hearing opinions on large and difficult cases.
After reviewing the evidentiary materials, the prosecutor handling the case believed that the reported infringed film and television work by the rights holder accounted for a small part of the website and App and operated by Ke. App and rights holders scattered The public safety agency decided that the relevant evidence on the number of unauthorized film and television works is insufficient, and a complete chain of evidence has not been formed.
Based on the evidence in the case, the prosecutor who dealt with the case presented an opinion on how to determine the number of breaches to guide the investigation and gather evidence: timely extraction of the electronic data of the criminal film and the illegally stored television works from the confiscated works. criminal computer, hard drive and rented server, and extracting Chat records on the suspect’s mobile phone, transaction records for collecting advertising fees and other details can further identify the copyright ownership of the infringing work.
In the end, the public security agency compiled the electronic data of infringing film and television works stored in the server rented by Ke, deleted duplicates, and combined the appraisal opinion and the copyright owner’s opinion on identifying infringing film and television works , and it was determined that the number of infringing film and television works was 57,600.
On February 15, 2023, the public security agency transferred Ke to the Mingxi County Procuratorate for review and prosecution on suspicion of copyright infringement.
The prosecutor handling the case reviewed the case evidence and found that, in order to avoid conflict, Ke had used multiple online payment accounts of his close relatives to collect advertising fees. In addition to collecting advertising fees, the online payment accounts this also income that was not related to the case.
In order to ascertain the facts of the case as quickly as possible and improve the efficiency of the process of dealing with the case, the court decided to conduct its own supplementary investigation.
The prosecutor handling the case retrieved QQ chat records on Ke’s mobile phone and compared the chat content between Ke and advertisers on how to calculate advertising fees based on page views with the statistics on website and app page views and operated by Ke. Yes, at the same time, organize the transaction records of the online payment account used by Ke. By sorting out the details of the fund one by one, and confirming and checking the transfer time, amount and other content with Ke one by one, it was finally correctly determined that the total advertising fees collected by Ke totaled 353,500 yuan.
recovery of stolen goods and recovery of losses
Reduce the burden of claims on rights holders
During the review and prosecution stage, the prosecutor dealing with the case found that Ke had failed to compensate the rights holder and had failed to obtain the rights holder’s understanding. On March 14, 2023, the procuratorate decided to arrest Ke. At the same time, the prosecutor handling the case took the initiative to listen to the rights holder’s opinion, consider compensation for the rights holder’s losses as a sentencing factor, insisted on interpreting the law and logic, urged Mr Ke to fulfill his obligation to compensate the holder of the rights, which facilitated both parties to reach a compensation settlement. In the end, Ke took the initiative to compensate the right holder for his losses, thereby protecting the rights and legitimate interests of the right holder to the greatest extent.
During the process of handling the case, the prosecutor also led Ke to withdraw the stolen goods. After hard work, Ke withdraws all the illegal gains and pleads guilty and receive punishment. After that, Ke’s close relatives applied to change the coercive measures against him, and the procuratorate carried out a detention need review based on the application. After calling a public hearing and listening to the opinions of the people’s supervisors and hearing officers, the procuratorial organ believed that the facts of the case had basically been found, that the evidence had been collected and placed, and Ke and the rights holder has reached a settlement agreement, and the adoption of bail pending trial would not cause social danger.
On April 4, 2023, the Mingxi County Procuratorate filed a public prosecution against Ke on suspicion of copyright infringement. On April 20, the court sentenced Ke to three years in prison, suspended for four years, and a fine of 400,000 yuan.
Comments from delegates of the National People’s Congress
Weng Zuquan, deputy to the National People’s Congress, director of the Burn Trauma Big Data Research Center and professor of the School of Biological Sciences and Engineering at Fuzhou University
In the age of the Internet, illegal and criminal acts of crime and piracy have spread to the Internet, and copyright protection faces many challenges such as difficulty in filing cases, obtaining evidence, identifying, and recovering stolen goods . In recent years, the procuratorial organs have firmly established the concept that the protection of intellectual property rights is to protect innovation, promote the comprehensive performance of intellectual property acquisition duties, seriously tackle copyright infringement in communication and business activities online, protect the legal rights effectively. and the interests of copyright holders, and promote standardization and the healthy development of the cultural market Provide judicial protection.
It is hoped that the procuratorate bodies will severely punish piracy and crime and increase the cost of online intellectual property infringement crimes. Think ahead to countermeasures for Internet rights protection problems, increase the intensity of electronic evidence collection, strengthen the use of intelligence, and use “data modeling” to empower the handling of Internet violation cases to improve quality and efficiency; considering the difficult, complex and highly professional characteristics of criminal cases related to infringement of intellectual property on the Internet, actively introduce external intelligence and external brains, strengthen cooperation with relevant functional departments, establish and form a cooperative property protection mechanism cross-regional, cross-departmental and cross-level intellectual to form synergy for the protection of intellectual property. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the publicity of the legal protection of intellectual property rights, use typical cases to guide citizens to establish copyright awareness, consciously respect intellectual property rights, form a good protective atmosphere in the whole society, and collectively. build a clean, safe and orderly Internet environment.
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