The game "Legend" was once popular, and its high popularity not only attracted many players, but also attracted some people with ulterior motives. Some criminals used methods such as setting up private servers to profit a lot, not only infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of copyright owners, but also causing damage to market order. On November 8th, the first instance verdict of the copyright infringement case initiated by the Yuetang District Prosecutor's Office in Xiangtan City, Hunan Province, was announced. The court sentenced Lin and four others to three years, six months to ten months in prison, and each was fined 150000 to 30000 yuan. "From legitimate authorization to illegal private server" The original meaning of private server refers to the act of setting up servers through illegally obtained online game programs without the permission or authorization of the copyright owner of online game works, using internet game works owned by others for operation, and infringing on copyright for profit. The prosecutor in charge of the case explained that compared to the difficult upward path of upgrading legitimate game platforms, ", Players on private gaming platforms often only need to spend a little money (referring to the recharge behavior in online games) to quickly upgrade to high-end players, and can also collect various rare equipment. Many players are immersed in this joy and "blood transfusion" into this black industry chain. Lin, who used to be a seasoned player of the Legend game, smelled the "business opportunity" in it. In July 2021, he established an information technology company in Changde City, mainly engaged in game development and operation. As the actual controller of the company, Lin recruited experienced game developers Li and Sun through various means such as posting recruitment information on the "Network Technology Exchange Group" after the company was established. He also invited Fu, whom he had previously met through the game "Legend", to join. "We initially purchased the copyright of the mobile game 'Legend', but our business has been sluggish and PC games have become more popular, which led us to consider operating a private PC game server." Lin began to set up and operate the 'Legend' private server in October 2021. In April 2022, staff members of a technology limited company in Hunan, located in the High tech Industrial Development Zone of Xiangtan City, Shenzhen (which, based on the authorization of the copyright owner, acts on behalf of the copyright owner to crack down on piracy) discovered that several online games had published counterfeit "Legend" pages without authorization to attract players, and reported the case to the public security organs. After a series of investigations, in February 2023, the public security organs arrested Lin, Sun, Li, and Fu involved in the case and requested the Yuetang District Prosecutor's Office to intervene and guide the investigation in advance. This is the first copyright infringement case involving online games and private servers handled by the court, with a similarity of 99.9%. In the early intervention stage, the procuratorial organ guides the public security organ to fix the evidence. On the one hand, it verifies that the suspect has set up the Legendary game server without the permission of the copyright owner by obtaining evidence from the infringed unit and identifying electronic evidence. On the other hand, it is suggested to audit the third-party payment platform used by the suspect to receive the game server recharge and calculate the amount of illegal business. After comparing the identity of the official client of "Legend" with a sample named "17th Anniversary Client. rar" opened by Lin and others, the identification conclusion is that "the directory structure is basically consistent, and the file content is basic."
Edit：Zhoushu Responsible editor：Jia Jia
Source：jcrb.com
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