TYGlobe

Public Security Bureau of Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone successfully cracked the first copyright infringement case involving the cinematographic work *Ne Zha 2: The Devil Boy Stirs the Sea* in Sichuan Province in February 2025, providing strong judicial guarantee for the high-quality development of the film industry. The case originated from the movie-going boom triggered by the release of *Ne Zha 2* during the Spring Festival period: the film grossed over 10 billion yuan at the box office in only 15 days, setting multiple records in the history of China's film industry, but piracy spread rampantly accordingly. Relying on the "Intellectual Property Cloud Police Post" platform, and combining big data and inter-departmental coordination mechanisms, the police found during a patrol inspection on February 11 that a website illegally provided pirated Spring Festival theatrical season films including *Ne Zha 2*, and profited from advertising placement by driving clicks to the platform. Further investigation showed that the website had uploaded a total of more than 300,000 pirated film and television works, among which the unauthorized dissemination of popular films such as *Ne Zha 2* directly threatened the order of the film market and the core interests of the producers. Case-handling personnel promptly identified Tong Mou, the founder of the website, and Liang Mouyuan, the operator, and carried out cross-provincial arrests on February 17. The two fully confessed to the criminal facts of building the infringing website and APP, and illegally making profits. They have been criminally detained in accordance with the law, and the case has entered the judicial procedure.

This operation has not only timely curbed the impact of the proliferation of pirated content on box office revenues, but also highlighted the forward-looking protection of the cultural and creative industry by public security organs. In the course of case handling, the police have formed a full-chain protection model of "prevention-detection-crackdown" by pre-judging infringement risks during the Spring Festival film season, actively monitoring clues, and coordinating with professional forces. As a benchmark digital cultural and creative work "made in the high-tech zone", the success of *Ne Zha 2* is inseparable from copyright protection. The investigation and handling of this case has created a safe business environment for cultural and creative enterprises within the jurisdiction, and also accumulated experience in responding to new challenges such as AI imitation and cross-border infringement. Judicial organs, in accordance with the Criminal Law and the Copyright Law of China, have exerted a deterrent effect on infringement acts, clarified that copyright infringement of audiovisual works for profit purposes is punishable by a maximum fixed-term imprisonment of seven years, and drawn a legal red line for the sound development of the industry.

This case provides a systematic demonstration for film and television companies to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests through criminal means. With the assistance of professional lawyers, film and television companies may establish a "Technology Monitoring + Criminal Linkage" mechanism. They may rely on AI monitoring and blockchain evidence preservation technologies to scan pirated links in real time, and set up pre-configured keyword early warning for high-risk periods such as the Spring Festival movie season and summer movie season. In the event of large-scale infringement (for example, where clicks on pirated resources exceed 100,000 times), they shall immediately collect evidence such as visit volume and dissemination scope, file a criminal report with the public security organs in a timely manner, and facilitate the initiation of judicial procedures for the case.