China’s prosecutors charged over 7,100 people with copyright crimes since 2023
At a glance
- China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate says prosecutors charged more than 7,100 people with copyright crimes from 2023 to September 2026.
- It says the crimes are becoming more industrialised, chain-based and cross-border, with income shifting to advertising, memberships and virtual currency.
- Cases it cites include pirate video apps with 83,000+ works that took over 392 million yuan in ad fees.
Prosecutors across China charged more than 7,100 people with copyright-infringement crimes between 2023 and September 2026, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate said on 22 October. In an article on its official WeChat account, republished by Xinhua, the procuratorate said these crimes are becoming more industrialised, more organised along supply chains and more often cross-border. [1], [2]
It describes four trends. Infringement has moved from physical copies to large-scale online distribution. Targets have spread beyond film, music and books to online games, short dramas, murder-mystery game scripts and blind-box figurines. Operations are more organised, chain-based and cross-border. And income has shifted from direct sales to traffic, through advertising, membership fees and virtual-currency payments. [1], [2]
The cases it cites include a group that ran video-aggregation apps carrying more than 83,000 audiovisual works without permission and collected over 392 million yuan in advertising fees. Another group, led by a man surnamed Qiu, bought domains and rented overseas servers to run pirate film sites offering more than 160,000 works, earning over 17.22 million yuan from illegal advertisers. Other cases involve “network lock” tools that let buyers get past software owners’ licence checks, with illegal business volume of over 30.67 million yuan, and counterfeit figurines from a company’s toy line sold online. [1]
The procuratorate’s article does not say where or when each case was decided. The 7,100 figure counts people prosecuted, not convicted. [1]
Sources
- Xinhua (from the Supreme People’s Procuratorate WeChat account). 最高检：侵犯著作权犯罪更趋产业化、链条化、跨境化. Published 2026-10-22 10:40 Beijing time. Chinese. Byline: Supreme People’s Procuratorate. Accessed 3 November 2026. Working English title translation: SPP: copyright crimes increasingly industrialised, chain-based and cross-border (working translation).
- Guangming Online (from Procuratorial Daily). 警惕！侵犯著作权犯罪手段升级，网游、短剧、盲盒手办成侵权新目标. Published 2026-10-22 18:41 Beijing time. Chinese. Byline: 张羽 (Zhang Yu). Accessed 3 November 2026. Working English title translation: Copyright crime methods escalate as online games, short dramas and blind-box figurines become new targets (working translation).
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