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.
The judgment of the first generative artificial intelligence infringement dispute case in Jiangsu Province provides an important judicial precedent for the copyright protection of AI Generated Content (AIGC). In this case, the plaintiff Lin Chen used the Midjourney software to generate the floor plan of *Companion Heart* by adjusting prompts for multiple times, modified the details in Photoshop, and finally completed a creative work depicting a half heart-shaped balloon by the Huangpu River at night. Lin Chen registered the work as a fine art work with the National Copyright Administration of China in April 2023. Later, he found that a Hangzhou-based technology company published a highly similar picture on social media without authorization, and a Changshu-based real estate company further converted the creative concept of the picture into a physical installation for commercial publicity. Lin Chen accordingly filed a lawsuit, demanding the two defendants to cease the infringement and pay RMB 500,000 in compensation.
1. Case Enlightenment
According to a report from Xinhua News Agency dated March 2, a number of typical cases involving camcording and dissemination of theatrical films investigated and handled by local copyright law enforcement authorities during the 7th Special Campaign for Copyright Protection of Theatrical Films, which was jointly deployed and launched by relevant departments of the National Copyright Administration, China Film Administration, Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of Culture and Tourism, have been officially released.
Content Interpretation
