China's New Developments in Crackdown on Criminal Copyright Infringement in the Digital Era

Under the external pressure mainly in the frame of the TRIPS and out of the intrinsic motivation to strengthen intellectual property protection from the height of national strategy, China raised the protective level under criminal law and introduced punitive damages in all intellectual property infringement cases. Rulemaking activities enlarged the scope of criminal offences of Internet piracy, and law enforcement became more active than before. Specifically, tricks for pirating online games, including setting up a private service and hacking games to cheat can be crimes. Additionally, the unauthorised dissemination of copyrighted works through information networks (peer-to-peer file-sharing technology or leeching websites) and circumvention or disability of technological protection measures have been criminalised. The Internet service provider may face a criminal sanction when it fails to delete or block pirated content. The commercial scale, a constructive element of criminal copyright infringement, gained a measuring standard in online piracy cases.