Entertainment Law Newsletter | Sept. 04, 2026

Key Focus

The Supreme People’s Procuratorate issues five typical cases on technical support for intellectual property procuratorial case-handling — clarifying that disseminating audiovisual works by “hotlinking” through third-party video parsing interfaces, even without storing the works on one’s own server, still constitutes an act of making works available via an information network; procuratorial organs may employ technical means such as data recovery, cross-device electronic trace correlation, remote online inspection and image identification to ascertain the actual operator of a website and reconstruct the path of infringing dissemination
The National Copyright Administration and five other departments jointly launch the Fifth Youth Copyright Protection Season — focusing on key areas such as online literature, online games, online films and television, and books published domestically and overseas, and strictly rectifying rampant infringement and piracy involving the rights and interests of minors; strictly investigating and punishing illegal acts that induce or instigate minors to engage in camcording and illicit recording of theatrical films
The procuratorial organs of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei jointly release seven typical cases safeguarding the development of the digital economy — two of which concern copyright protection in the online game and digital music industries, targeting criminal acts such as illegally obtaining game source code, setting up private servers and organizing players to top up accounts, as well as mass copying and selling infringing music storage devices via online platforms

News

The Cyberspace Administration of China has carried out the second phase of the special campaign “Clean and Bright: Rectifying Irregularities in AI Applications”: more than 5.61 million items of illegal and non-compliant information have been removed, over 49,000 accounts have been investigated and dealt with, and more than 2,400 non-compliant websites, applications and the like have been handled; a number of typical cases have been publicly notified, including those involving the use of AI to “radically alter” classics, generate “digital swill,” publish false and inaccurate information, and impersonate or counterfeit others.
National Press and Publication Administration: In August 2026, a total of 209 domestic online games and 6 imported online games were approved with publication numbers; from January to August 2026, a total of 1,361 online games (1,319 domestic online games and 42 imported online games) obtained publication numbers, an increase of 242 compared with the same period in 2025 (1,119 games), representing a year-on-year growth of approximately 21.6%.
National Copyright Administration: The copyright industry has become a new engine driving China’s innovative development. During the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, efforts will be made to accelerate the improvement of top-level copyright design, continuously strengthen copyright protection, constantly enhance copyright commercialization and utilization, and further expand international cooperation in copyright.
China Film Administration: The box office revenue of the 2026 summer film season reached RMB 12.498 billion, with 340 million admissions, representing year-on-year increases of 4.45% and 5.86%, respectively; “Kung Fu Women’s Football,” “Welcome to Long Restaurant,” “The Eight Immortals!”, “Spider-Man: A Brand-New Day” and “Odyssey” ranked among the top five in summer season box office.
The General Office of the Chongqing Municipal People’s Government issues the “Several Policy Measures to Further Promote Steady and Positive Economic Development in Chongqing”: for digital products going overseas in 2026, such as original games sold abroad, newly exported micro-short dramas, and original online literary works published overseas, relevant expenses incurred for each individual project may be subsidized up to a maximum of RMB 500,000.
The 16th China International Digital Publishing Expo is held in Jinan, Shandong Province, at which the “2025–2026 Annual Report on China’s Digital Publishing Industry” is released: in 2025, the overall scale of China’s digital publishing industry reached RMB 1,879.933 billion, an increase of 7.51% over the previous year, including RMB 350.789 billion for online games, RMB 235 billion for digital music, RMB 78.937 billion for mobile publishing, and RMB 44 billion for online animation.
The 2026 Gamescom Cologne International Game Exhibition opens in Germany: it attracts 60 Chinese enterprises including Tencent, NetEase, miHoYo and Happy Elements, setting a new record for the number of Chinese exhibitors; miHoYo unveils its brand-new title “The Primordial Knot” for the first time at this exhibition.
Xiaohongshu issues a governance notice on malicious account creation and non-compliant marketing: the platform focuses on cracking down on acts such as impersonating celebrities to publish false content, mass plagiarism or posting highly similar content, manipulating data through like-swapping and mutual following, and registering large numbers of small accounts to covertly advertise and divert traffic. Over the past month, a total of 1.799 million non-compliant accounts have been handled.
WeChat Coral Security issues the “Fifth Notice on the Ongoing Special Campaign ‘Clean and Bright: Rectifying Irregularities in Account Name Information’”: a batch of accounts impersonating or counterfeiting official institutions and media, adding titles without certification, posing as persons in specific professions, exploiting and hyping hot events, and containing implicit improper information in nicknames and profiles have been dealt with; since the beginning of this year, a total of 85,831 related non-compliant accounts have been handled and 1,802 accounts have been closed.

Cases

The Market Supervision Administration of Chaoyang District, Beijing, concludes the first administrative penalty case in Beijing concerning trade secrets in the AIGC field: at the level of administrative law enforcement, it is clarified that AIGC commercial software may lawfully fall within the scope of trade secret protection, and the party involved in the case is fined RMB 100,000.

Key Focus

The Supreme People’s Procuratorate issues five typical cases on technical support for intellectual property procuratorial case-handling — clarifying that disseminating audiovisual works by “hotlinking” through third-party video parsing interfaces, even without storing the works on one’s own server, still constitutes an act of making works available via an information network; procuratorial organs may employ technical means such as data recovery, cross-device electronic trace correlation, remote online inspection and image identification to ascertain the actual operator of a website and reconstruct the path of infringing dissemination

The typical cases released this time cover the criminal and civil procuratorial fields of intellectual property, involving complex technical issues such as the determination of the non-public nature of trade secrets, the identification of technological protection measures for copyright, the determination of “hotlinking” as an act of dissemination via information networks, the identification of the identity of perpetrators in cybercrimes, and the allocation of the burden of proof in patent infringement. Among them, the case of Zhao XX infringing copyright concerns the dissemination of Chinese and foreign animated audiovisual works by “hotlinking” through technical parsing services, and reflects the practice of procuratorial organs in handling online copyright crime cases by employing technical investigators, data recovery, electronic trace correlation analysis and image identification.

From 2017 to 2021, without the permission of the copyright holders, Zhao XX registered multiple domain names and leased servers to operate a certain animation website, and used third-party video parsing services so that the public could directly watch Chinese and foreign animated audiovisual works such as “Qin’s Moon,” “The Legend of Nezha,” “GG Bond,” “One Piece” and “Detective Conan” without being redirected to the rights holders’ platforms, and profited by publishing paid advertisements. Investigation revealed that the website disseminated more than 2,100 audiovisual works and over 30,000 episodes by means of such “hotlinking.”

The procuratorial organ restored server logs, browser records and operation traces on mobile terminals, and, in conjunction with domain name redirection, records of paid video parsing services and digital certificate purchases, determined that Zhao XX was the actual operator of the website involved in the case. Although the relevant works were not stored on the servers of the website involved, the website transmitted work identification information to third-party parsing services and obtained playback links, enabling the public to directly watch the relevant works, which, in accordance with law, constitutes an act of making works available to the public via an information network.

On 19 September 2024, the People’s Procuratorate of Tianfu New Area, Sichuan, instituted a public prosecution against Zhao XX for the crime of copyright infringement. On 13 December 2024, the People’s Court of Tianfu New Area, Sichuan, sentenced Zhao XX to two years’ fixed-term imprisonment and imposed a fine. After Zhao XX lodged an appeal, the Chengdu Intermediate People’s Court, on 4 July 2025, ruled to dismiss the appeal and uphold the original judgment.

Source: Supreme People’s Procuratorate

The National Copyright Administration and five other departments jointly launch the Fifth Youth Copyright Protection Season

The National Copyright Administration, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism jointly launch the Fifth Youth Copyright Protection Season, with a focus on protecting copyright interests involving minors and further regulating the copyright order of relevant industries and online platforms.

This campaign focuses on areas frequently accessed by minors, such as online literature, online games, online films and television, and books published domestically and overseas, and concentrates on rectifying unlawful acts such as disseminating, reproducing and selling relevant works without authorization, and committing infringement and piracy through online platforms. At the same time, the relevant authorities will strictly investigate and punish acts that induce or instigate minors to engage in camcording and illicit recording of theatrical films, and strengthen the tracing and handling of dissemination channels for infringing content and related unlawful actors. During the campaign, the relevant authorities will further press online platforms to fulfill their responsibilities in copyright governance, urge platforms to improve mechanisms for copyright complaints, handling of infringing content and protection of minors, and enhance the linkage between administrative enforcement and criminal justice, thereby creating a healthy and orderly online copyright environment for minors.

Source: National Copyright Administration

The procuratorial organs of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei jointly release seven typical cases safeguarding the development of the digital economy

The procuratorial organs of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei jointly release seven typical cases safeguarding the development of the digital economy, covering fields such as artificial intelligence, intelligent manufacturing, digital education, high-end equipment, book publishing, online games and digital music. Among them, the following two cases concern criminal protection of copyright in the online game and digital music industries:

1. Online game industry: case of Chen XX and three others infringing copyright

From October 2022 to July 2023, for profit and without the permission of the copyright holders and operating agents of the relevant online games, Chen XX and three others illegally obtained game source code, set up private game servers, and attracted players to top up accounts on relevant online platform accounts by means such as live streaming, thereby obtaining illegal gains of more than RMB 130,000. Appraisal determined that the server-side of the game involved was substantially similar to the official game server-side. After the case was uncovered, Chen XX and the three others compensated the rights company for its losses and obtained its understanding.

The People’s Procuratorate of Chicheng County, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, instituted a public prosecution in accordance with the law. The People’s Court found that Chen XX and the three others constituted the crime of copyright infringement, and sentenced them to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from eight months to one year, with probation applied, and imposed fines. The judgment has now taken legal effect.

2. Digital music industry: case of Jiang XX and four others infringing copyright

Starting from March 2023, Chen A and Chen B organized the reproduction and online sale of infringing in-car music USB drives. The USB drives involved contained 2,210 songs that had not been authorized by the copyright holders and phonogram producers. Jiang XX was entrusted to reproduce and package a total of 332,640 infringing USB drives and SD cards, with the reproduction activities involving an illegal business amount of more than RMB 2.63 million and illegal gains of more than RMB 160,000. Chen A registered an online platform store to sell the above products, with sales amounting to more than RMB 11.43 million and illegal gains of more than RMB 946,000; other persons respectively participated in organizing supply, shipping goods and providing after-sales services.

The People’s Procuratorate of the High-tech Industrial Development Zone of Tangshan City, Hebei Province, instituted a public prosecution in accordance with the law. The People’s Court found that Jiang XX, Chen A and Chen B constituted the crime of copyright infringement, and sentenced them to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from two years and four months to four years and four months, and imposed fines. The judgment has now taken legal effect. As for Chen C and Ou XX, who played secondary and auxiliary roles in the joint crime and whose criminal circumstances were relatively minor, the procuratorial organ rendered relative non-prosecution decisions in accordance with the law.

Source: Beijing Procuratorate Online