"Renren Film and Television" was investigated for pirated film and television resources, and the amount involved exceeded 16 million yuan

In September 2020, the Shanghai police discovered that someone provided online viewing and offline downloading of suspected infringing film and television works through the "Renren Film and Television Subtitle Group" website and client. After contacting the relevant copyright owners, it was found that the above-mentioned film and television works had not obtained the authorization or permission of the copyright owner. In response, the Economic Investigation Corps of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau launched an investigation together with the Hongkou Public Security Bureau.

Using the two QR codes for membership payment and peripheral product sales payment left by the website and client involved as a breakthrough, the police locked in Liang and Cong in Shandong, and Wang in Hubei, and quickly figured out the organizational structure of the entire criminal gang.

After investigation, it was found that since 2018, the criminal suspect Liang and others have successively established a number of companies, set up and rented servers in various places at home and abroad, and developed, operated and maintained the "Renren Film and Television Subtitle Group" APP and related websites.

Without the authorization of the copyright owner, they downloaded the film source through overseas pirated forum websites, hired people to translate and press the film at a remuneration of about 400 yuan per film (episode), and then uploaded it to the APP server for public dissemination, and illegally made profits by collecting website membership fees, advertising fees, and selling mobile hard disks burned with infringing film and television works. Preliminary verification shows that various port application software publishes more than 20,000 films (episodes) and has more than 8 million registered members.

After three months of meticulous investigation, the Shanghai police, with the strong cooperation of the police in Shandong, Hubei, Guangxi and other places, cracked the "9.8" major cross-provincial infringement of copyright of film and television works jointly supervised by the National Copyright Administration, the National Office for Combating Pornography and Illegal Publications, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate. 14 criminal suspects headed by Liang were arrested, 3 companies involved in the case were investigated and dealt with, 20 mobile phones and 12 computer hosts and servers used to commit the crime were seized, and the amount involved in the case was more than 16 million yuan.