In recent years, textbooks such as the complete explanation of primary and secondary school textbooks and "Class Notes" have become popular books purchased by many parents of primary and secondary school students online, and have also become "business opportunities to get rich" in the eyes of criminals. In order to seek profits, He Moujia, Zhu Moujia and others created an industrial chain of "production, supply and marketing" pirated teaching and auxiliary books, and sold a large number of pirated books, and the amount involved exceeded 10 million yuan. On January 5, the Supreme People's Procuratorate released typical cases of procuratorial organs punishing copyright infringement crimes in accordance with the law, disclosing the details of the cases.
From June to August 2022, without obtaining a printing license, He Moumou A used the identity information of his wife Zhang Moumou to set up a Shun Mou Da Printing Factory in Pingdingshan City, Henan Province, recruited 6 printing personnel including He Mou B, and illegally printed and sold more than 340,000 copies of textbooks, primary and secondary school textbooks, "Class Notes" and other primary and secondary school teaching and auxiliary books, with a sales amount of more than 1.02 million yuan and a total value of more than 20,000 yuan of unsold books.
In June 2022, Zhu Moujia, a "big book buyer", purchased a large number of pirated teaching and auxiliary books from He Moujia, some of which were wholesaled to Yuan Moujia and others, and the other part was stored in the warehouse for online sales. During this period, Zhu Moumou A used the identity information of his parents provided by Lu Moumou to register an online store, and hired Lu Moumou to be responsible for the sales of the online store, and Zhu Moumou B and other three people were responsible for bookkeeping and picking up the goods. After auditing, Zhu Moujia and others sold books totaling more than 4.34 million yuan, illegally profited more than 580,000 yuan, and unsold books totaled more than 2.2 million yuan.
After Yuan Moujia purchased pirated teaching books from Zhu Moujia, he also sold them through online stores. It has successively hired 7 people, including Yuan Mou B and Yuan Mou C, to be responsible for online store sales and packaging and express delivery. After auditing, Yuan Moujia and others had a total sales amount of more than 2.2 million yuan, illegal profits of more than 1.07 million yuan, and a total value of more than 2.66 million yuan of unsold books.
In addition, the shipper Wang Moumou, knowing that the above-mentioned books were pirated, hired others to transport the packaged books from Zhu Moujia, Yuan Moumou and others to various express delivery points. Wang Moumou should settle the delivery payment of more than 60,000 yuan, and actually received the delivery payment of more than 50,000 yuan.
On August 2, 2022, He Moujia, Zhu Moujia and others were arrested by the public security organs, and a total of more than 760,000 books were seized in the warehouse involved in the case. On the same day, the Weidong Branch of the Pingdingshan Municipal Public Security Bureau filed a case for investigation on suspicion of copyright infringement by He Moujia, Zhu Moujia and others. The Zhanhe District Procuratorate of Pingdingshan City was invited to send personnel to review the evidence materials in advance, and make suggestions on the identification of pirated books, the amount of the crime, and the whole chain of crackdowns, so as to improve the evidence chain.
Pirated supplementary books seized
On November 8, 2022, the Weidong Branch transferred 8 people including He Moujia to the Zhanhe District Procuratorate for review and prosecution on suspicion of copyright infringement, and 17 people including Zhu Moujia on suspicion of selling infringing copies.
It is reported that during the handling of the case, there was controversy over the characterization of the act of printing the "Class Notes" that were not marked by the publisher. The public security organs believe that books that are not marked as publishing houses are illegal publications, and the relevant printing acts should be determined as the crime of illegal business operations. After supplemental investigation on its own, the procuratorate determined that the content of this part of the book was exactly the same as the genuine book "Class Notes", only the answers to the Xi questions were added, and the relevant printing behavior constituted the crime of copyright infringement. It is recommended that the public security organs appraise books that have not been marked as publishers, and improve the chain of evidence. In the end, the nature of the case was accurately determined and the law was correctly applied.
The prosecutor communicates with the investigators about the case
On December 18, 2022, the Zhanhe District Procuratorate prosecuted 7 people including He Moumou A for copyright infringement and 7 people including Zhu Moujia for the crime of selling infringing copies, and made a decision not to prosecute 11 people including Zhang Moumou, who committed minor crimes, voluntarily pleaded guilty and accepted punishment, and voluntarily returned their illegal gains.
On April 28, 2023, the Zhanhe District People's Court made a first-instance judgment, adopting the facts of the procuratorate's accusations and sentencing recommendations, and sentenced He Moujia and seven others to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from four to eight months for copyright infringement, with some suspended sentences and fines ranging from 800,000 yuan to 8,000 yuan, and sentenced Zhu Moujia and seven others to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from three years, eight months to eight months, and some suspended sentences and fines ranging from 1.1 million yuan to 10,000 yuan, and continued to recover Zhu Moujia's remaining illegal gains in accordance with the law. Yuan Moujia was dissatisfied with the first-instance judgment and appealed. On June 27 of the same year, the Pingdingshan Intermediate People's Court ruled to reject the appeal and uphold the original judgment.
Source: Procuratorate Daily Justice Network