Coral infringement cases are worth pondering

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Recent advances have been made in the IT industry, which has had a significant impact on coral piracy. According to media reports, the Shenzhen Nanshan District Court has made a first-instance verdict, the Shoufu of the author of Coral QQ guilty of infringement of copyright, sentenced to three years imprisonment, and fined 1.2 million yuan, and confiscated illegal income.

In the rule of Law Society, this is a more common criminal case. However, as long as the special context of the Internet is understood, people will clearly see its weight. First, this is the first domestic "revision" of free software to implement criminal penalties, especially the result is a heavier sentence of the actual sentence. Second, The criminal sentence is fundamental to the rules of the game in the Software field, and whether the change is progressive remains to be seen.

More importantly, from the Shoufu by the public security organs to take coercive measures until the first trial of the court sentence, in a few months, the network for the public opinion of the matter is one-sided, netizens generally have sympathy for Shoufu, and the "victims", QQ copyright holders Tencent Company instead of lambasting, such public opinion can not help but people ponder.

Coral polyps are a large number of Third-party QQ software. The so-called third party software, refers to a kind of free software to modify, copy, bundle or plug the formation of a new free software. Tencent's QQ software is the most domestic users of instant messaging software, from the time it came out, There are a number of software enthusiasts for it to make a variety of "changes." As a result of the modified software added a new function, shielding the ads, so the coral, floating clouds led by the third party QQ by many netizens love, objectively also for the Tencent company to develop and consolidate the user groups. In the early days of the internet, this "modification" of free software Behavior doesn't get too much attention, Tencent has publicly said that "we do not have any blow to the external version of the meaning", its technical staff and shoufu to maintain contact, and has consulted what kind of plug convenience can be provided. However, when the plug-in version of the trend of profit, even show a more serious competition situation, Contradictions are also on the brink. The Tencent company to the public security organs to report polyps, and even Shoufu was sentenced, is the software lake contradictions intensified until the result of mutual conflict. We will not comment on the criminal sentence that the court has yet to enter into force. But, to examine the civil response to this matter, It is necessary and useful to consider the delicate relationship between copyright protection and the encouragement of innovation, and to look at the balance between the interests of the judiciary.

As we all know, in the absence of the source code is well known, in the absence of the source code, the software to modify is a very high level of technology. For this reason, young people such as Shoufu have always been considered it wizards. Because of these people's changes to the software and plug-in behavior and hacker behavior is significantly different, in essence, it is beneficial to netizens, so they have a high reputation in the network. From the perspective of industry competition, software modification and plug-in behavior, to promote the copyright holders on the one hand constantly upgrade the software version, On the one hand, some convenience functions have to be moderately opened, this is good for breaking down the monopoly and reducing the cost of the software. But from the perspective of copyright protection, if the software duplication and modification presents a flood of situation, even to the copyright owners to form an interest impact, then, take appropriate protection measures is inevitable.

But the question is, what kind of protection measures are appropriate? In 2006, Tencent had filed a civil lawsuit against Shoufu, although the court found that coral QQ constituted civil tort, but at the same time that the installation of external procedures such as improper competition "lack of evidence." Many people think that This kind of judicial disposal is more fair. And when the Shenzhen Public security organs will be shoufu arrested, and even the court sentenced to three years, this can not help but to be startled. By comparing the jurisprudence of the "Panda incense" virus, it is possible to understand the origin of this astonishment more accurately. Panda burning Incense "how serious the harm, the perpetrator of the illegal intent is how obvious, but also sentenced to four years. Shoufu just to do a little technical processing QQ software, and through Plug-ins to earn a little hard money, not to mention how much social harm, why so severe punishment? And just after Shoufu was caught, a lot of software enthusiasts earshot color change, floating cloud QQ technology core staff immediately released a statement. It is not difficult to see how the criminal intervention will play a role in the innovation and creation of the software industry.

Copyright should be vigorously protected, there is no doubt about it. However, in the criminal intervention to the emerging technology phenomenon, the judicial organs must be cautious and avoid becoming the backing of technical barriers and industry monopolies. This necessary judicial modesty is particularly important for the protection of technological innovation. In specific cases, Shoufu profit and his replication behavior is not necessarily linked to the nature of the software plug-in in the law of what kind of behavior, all need to be more rigorous judicial screening. This may also prompt the legislature to make a more adaptable interpretation of the general law.