With growing copyright awareness and an improving copyright law, plus the establishment of internet courts, a brand-new gray industry was born: infringement claims. The targets are media platforms such as websites, official accounts, and Weibo platforms, with images and fonts as bait for batch lawsuits claiming infringement.
The Plaintiff — the Copyright Protector
Copyright protectors include copyright companies, photographers, models, law firms, and so on. They first register a company in Beijing, because Beijing has an internet court, which makes it convenient to sue infringement subjects nationwide — convenient and fast.
The Plaintiff Is Experienced, Born for Rights Protection
Often the copyright holder and the law firm are bundled together as one group. They are professional, well-trained, and numerically superior, fighting small fry in regular-army formation with a high chance of winning. Companies and gangs born for rights protection monitor the internet every day, waiting for you to grow up and mature, then hand you over to the court for harvesting.
Legal Rights Protection Has Strong Deterrence
Many of the sued are small and medium webmasters or individual official accounts who simply ignore the legal emails or infringement complaint messages sent to them. So it’s better to just hand it to the court — efficient and effective. The plaintiff only needs to sit in front of the computer, fill in some info, and submit evidence. Many honest webmasters receive a court summons for the first time in their lives and may already be panicking.
A Dedicated Team for Baiting
Among the plaintiff gang there’s a team dedicated to laying bait. They often post images in places like Weibo, NetEase, and various forums — mostly beautiful-woman photos, because glamour photography is often many shots, and the person, background, and time in them can conveniently establish the image’s copyright; beautiful women also spread easily among the public.
They very much hope you upload their copyrighted images, then gladly go to court to ask you for money.
The Defendant — the Infringer
The defendant is often a small or medium website, official account, Weibo, or self-media — compared to the plaintiff, thin on manpower, with no professional legal team, like a lamb to the slaughter.
The Lucrative Gray Industry Playbook
First, the copyright holder spreads various copyrighted images and fonts online for you to download and use, then they start monitoring the internet to find people using their copyright, selecting their target to demand money.
Then they hand it to a partner law firm, which collects and organizes evidence and sues the infringement subject through the internet court. Their win rate is often as high as 90%.
The defendant receives a court summons. The first round should be hoping to settle, because going to court wastes time, manpower, and energy; settling gets compensation immediately. Although it may be less than a judgment would award, you get income right away and can move on to sue the next one.
There are also defendants who refuse to settle. Then they face a second round of attack: you won’t be facing one law firm but a law firm alliance — dozens of law firms from all over the country may sue you, each with a certain amount of evidence, and they can negotiate a settlement together or wear you down with a war of attrition lawsuits.
Summary
If you encounter such a case, hiring a lawyer or not makes no difference — you basically lose. The other side already has enough evidence before suing, so spending lawyer fees isn’t worth it. Better to respond yourself, consult a lawyer on what angle to argue, say yourself it wasn’t intentional, and lower the compensation amount. If you can settle, find a professional lawyer to help review the settlement agreement.
Finally, you absolutely must play poor! Play poor! Play poor! I’ll say it three times. If you show you can afford to pay and are generous, they’ll swarm in and take turns asking you for money. If you can’t pay a cent, they’ll leave you alone.